I’ve been reading the Wikipedia page for wormholes to kill some time.
The theatrics of a wormhole I understand somewhat through the diagrams and visualisation, but how do math equations represent the theory itself? To me it comes across as… well, just maths.
**Please do actually ELI5, I hardcore sucked at physics and maths in school.**
Link for context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole
In: 0
Math is a language. When you think of a wormhole, you can write it in words, and you can also write down some properties that you think a wormhole should have — such as how things behave when they go through that wormhole. At this point, everything is in words and any additional aspect of the wormhole needs to be written down.
Instead of writing down everything your wormhole can do, you can write a rule or give a prescription for how your wormhole behaves. Then, when people think about your wormhole, then just look at your rule and can determine if it has the properties they like. This rule takes the form of a math equation, for example the first one under “Metrics.” In some senses, the diagrams that you see are just math equations. Instead of writing an equation, we can plot a function and see, visually, what is going on. The two are interchangeable, as are the words we use to describe the wormhole and its diagrams.
Once the metric is defined, someone can then ask what happens when an object falls into the wormhole. Instead of you needing to answer them, they can solve the equation themselves, and the result will fit according to how you defined your wormhole. This object can be anything, whereas if it was just in words, you’d have to specify how each object behaves. The math can also be quicker and easier to understand when trying to incorporate other physics like black holes, planets, light, gravity, etc. which already have well defined mathematical forms.
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