eli5 how do massive objects deform space fabric like a ball on a sheet?

Question

I understand the thought experiment in itself but I dont understand how it interacts like a heavy object on a sheet. If I were to take a ball and place it inside of something 3 dimensional it would press out, not in

In: 0

Answer 1

It’s a *metaphor* to help you understand how gravity comes to exist.

**Like** how a ball on a sheet warps the 2-dimensional plane, causing smaller balls to roll toward it, so too a mass in 3d space “bends spacetime” so that other 3d objects are attracted to it. This is gravity.

**How** this happens is very hard to understand. Or maybe I’m stupid – either way, I don’t know how it happens.