How does the fabric of space actually works?

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If it works exactly like a ball that is placed on top of a cloth, doesn’t the celestial bodies that is rotating around the ball will eventually get sucked into the center?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

The fabric of space is often using a different definition of fabric which is more like composition of or nature of. And it draws on metaphors that are apt, like the elastic nature of space, but no matter how many dimensions you live in, you can’t reach out and touch the fabric of space. And the ball on a cloth demonstration I find really lacking where VSauce excels which is what causes the ball to curve. Most people, the first time they see it, don’t question it because they know the ball will curve. But the issue is, Earth’s gravity is the thing causing the ball to curve. Not the larger mass you use for the demonstration. So it uses gravity to explain gravity, typically being a no-no.

What’s really happening is the ball is travelling in a straight line from it’s perspective. If you walk straight north anywhere on Earth, you will feel like you’re walking a straight line, you won’t feel any force pushing you side to side, you won’t experience any acceleration (except down due to gravity). However, if you and your friend start 10 miles apart at the equator, both walking north, your initial paths are parallel. Parallel lines in euclidean, flat space should never meet. Yet you both meet at the north pole. The Earth is not flat, therefore, parallel lines will bend relative to an outside observer, just like the ball on the sheet curves from your perspective as an outside observer. But from your perspective walking on Earth and the ball’s perspective, floating through “space” the path you take is perfectly straight, you feel no acceleration or force. You feel weightless. And objects in motion tend to stay in that same motion unless acted on by an outside force.