this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2024
76 points (79.7% liked)

Showerthoughts

29325 readers
1 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

Rules

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Title

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I thought the current thinking is that gravity is bending and differences of spacetime?

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

I think that's the understanding of gravity for sizes of an atom and larger, which fall under the theory of relativity. In relativity, gravity is not a force; spacetime is a fabric that is bent by the presence of matter. For things smaller than an atoms, the leading theory is quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics hasn't definitely explained gravity. One of the leading subtheories to quantum mechanics uses a hypothetical particle called a graviton to communicate gravity. No one has been able to unite the two leading theories in physics (relativity and quantum mechanics) with any experimental success. In the meantime, we just treat (a) things smaller than atom and (b) everything larger as two different worlds.