Discussion»Statements»Rosie's Corner» Vis a vis the SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM what does space have to do with time? How does one affect the other except that time exists in space?
As I understand it, the term "space-time" was a necessary invention because of Einstein's publication of the principles of Special Relativity and General Relativity.
At relativistic speeds (i.e. speeds close to the speed of light in a vacuum) or under sufficiently large acceleration (e.g. due to large gravitational forces), objects experience time differently than objects which are moving comparatively slowly and/or not accelerating much.
Treating time as a spatial dimension makes it easier* to model and visualize relativistic effects.
(* = Note: I said "easier", not "easy.")
Here is a VERY crude analogy. Imagine you wanted to draw the path of an object on a flat surface. The object starts at a particular position, moves in a circle, and returns to its original position.
The graph you would draw on a piece of paper would simply be a circle. Unless you labeled each point on the graph, you wouldn't know where the object was at any given time.
Now, imagine you instead draw a 3-dimensional graph of the object's position, with the 3rd axis being time. Your graph would look like a helix and would make it easier to visualize where the object was at any given instant.
It would help a normal person SP but my spatial visualization is MIA. It's difficult if not impossible for me to visualize such things. You know those tests where you are given a variety of parts and a variety of complete figures and you're supposed to choose which bunch of parts when put together will produce that figure? I am an abysmal FAILURE at that. Thank you for your thoughtful and very informative reply. I'm sure others who are normal will find it very helpful. In theory I know it is! :)
SaltyPebble 