THE THEORY OF GRAVITY

EXAMINING THE MINKOWSKI SPACETIME CONCEPT

■ The single most important inspiration for Gravity was the concept of Minkowski Spacetime. Hermann Minkowski was a German mathematician who contributed to mathematical theories, mathematical physics and the theory of relativity. He was a prominent European university lecturer and was one of Albert Einstein’s teachers. Minkowski Spacetime is a mathematical concept involving the three dimensions we are familiar with, plus the addition of time as the fourth.

The infamous rubber sheet model is commonly used to explain the concept in layman’s terms. Imagine holding out a flat rubber sheet, then placing a heavy ball in the centre. The sheet is affected by the mass of the ball and the rubber stretches and curves as a result. If a smaller mass comes close to the curvature, then the path of that mass is affected. The indent and curvature of the sheet represents a gravitational field, and the model helps explain that the mass of an object distorts spacetime and drags a smaller object toward it as a result.

However, physicists agree that the analogy is flawed because it attempts to describe a four-dimensional concept in just two dimensions. In actuality, the resulting gravitational field surrounds the object 360 and when introducing a second mass, the model is misleading regarding how that mass behaves around the gravitational well. The model is also unable to depict how important time is in the concept. One thing is for sure though; playing Gravity is far easier than fully comprehending the scientific theories that influenced it.