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this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2024
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Today I Learned
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They call it the "fabric of reality" because that's a good metaphor to describe how gravity works. (Or at least I assume that's where it came from, I could very well be wrong.)
When you stretch a fabric thin, and place something heavy in it, it's going to sink and stretch the fabric down with it. Then, if you place a smaller object next to the larger one, it's going to roll around the larger one, gradually moving closer as it goes down the slope created by the larger object.
That might be hard to visualize, so here's a neat video I found.
Edit: guys I think you're reading too much into this I wasn't trying to provide a foolproof explanation of how gravity works I was just trying to relate an interesting metaphor to a piece of linguistics.
And I wasn't even right, a quick google search says the term predates our understanding of the universe. Its probably a coincidence.
Can spacetime be ripped or torn? Or is the fabric metaphor simply a way of understanding and visualizing it?
What if it is getting ripped/torn but there's just more space 'underneath' that instantly fills the gaps as they are created? I guess at that point it's indistinguishable from stretching but it's interesting to think about