My coworker told me gravity isn’t a force it’s an effect mass has on space time, like falling into a hole or something. We’re not physicists, I don’t understand.
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Objects with mass distort space-time. More mass, bigger distortion. As a 2d analogy, picture spacetime as being like the surface of a trampoline. If you drop a bunch of marbles they wont move quickly, but will *eventually* come together. Now instead drop a handfull of marbles and a single bowling ball. It’s gonna look like the marbles are all getting pulled towards the bowling ball.
The space time distortion model is called the theory of general relativity, and it fills in the holes where Newton’s equations break down. This is usually where enormous masses, distances, and velocities come into play, like planetary motions.
However, relativity breaks down when things get incredibly small, and this is what physicists are currently attempting to solve using quantum mechanics.
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