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- AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish22 days
Energy bends spacetime, just like matter. Is that what you mean?
- AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish22 days
Through mass/energy equivalence, E=mc2. Energy distorts spacetime the same as its equivalent rest mass.
- 22 days
What I never understood is why the electric field doesn’t distort spacetime more than gravity. The force between 2 electrons is like 4*10^42 times stronger than gravity. So a tiny electric field should cause the same spacetime bending as a massive object.
- 22 days
It does. The energy density of the em field will contribute to the stress-energy tensor that changes the metric of spacetime.
Though the force itself is irrelevant
- 22 days
Though the force itself is irrelevant
But force is a measure of the rate at which energy is transferred over a distance.
So if one force is greater than another and the distance is the same, then the energy is greater in the case of the greater force.
- 22 days
True. The em field is significantly more energetic, meaning that it contributes more to the stress energy tensor than the force of gravity
But recall that the force of gravity is the momentum change “due to” the curvature of spacetime. The fact that the force of gravity can bend spacetime at all is a really weird second-order perturbative effect.
These perturbative effects are typically described with a quantum field theory, but gravity has been thus far notably difficult to quantize.
- 22 days
But recall that the force of gravity is the momentum change “due to” the curvature of spacetime
But didn’t you just say that the electric field curves it too?
- 22 days
the simple forms of conservation you probably learned in school are not entirely accurate. you probably learned that neither energy not matter can be created or destroyed; whatever you do, the mass you begin with will be the same as the mass you end with, and the same is true, separately, for energy. that’s not actually true; mass can be converted into energy, and vice versa. the correct form of conservation is that the combined mass-energy is constant. mass can be destroyed, but only if a proportional amount of energy is created. the coefficient of that proportionality is the square of the speed of light. that’s what E=mc² means. that’s how nuclear weapons work, and why they’re so powerful. c² is obviously a pretty big value, so when a small amount of matter is destroyed, it creates a large amount of energy
similarly, energy can be converted into mass, but doing so makes it much “smaller.” c² units of energy will become 1 unit of mass. and mass, of course, interacts with space-time
21 daysYou explain beautifully the reason why Shakti (energy) is the Divine Consort of Shiva (the overseer of destruction) according to Vedic philosophy.
