When ever there’s a need to represent space time being bent/distorted there’s always that classic example of a plane being bent by an object in space but isn’t that happening in all directions say like a bubble around the object so why is it called the space time fabric and not say the space time pool or something like that
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Since our experience is with 3d objects, it’s very hard to think about a 3d space being distorted, so people simplify space to 2d so the distortion can be visualized in the 3rd dimension.
Yes, it is happening in all directions. The “rubber sheet” analogy shows a 2d universe, but relativity describes how our true 4d universe bends. But that’s a lot harder to visualize/draw!
Yes that analogy is often used. Usually because it’s easier to convey what’s actually happening in 3-D space rather than 4-D space, but to do it, you have to downshift everything. So what we perceive as 3-D space has to be downshifted to a 2-D plane so that it makes sense. In reality, you can’t “see” 3-D space bending “downwards” into 4-D space, and it’s really hard to even imagine, but it **is** what is actually happening. It gets even weirder and harder to contemplate when you realize that all of it is happening over some time T in all of these scenarios, but it’s physically difficult in a 3-D world to downshift reality to a 1-D line and continue the demonstration, although, it would be more accurate if you did. At least, conceptually.
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