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I have been looking at and researching Einstein's theory space and time more and cannot find an explanation for where time fits into his fabric of spacetime. I can see how space fits into it via gravity and such, but how is time represented in this?

Fabric of spacetime

Qmechanic
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TheGamerPlayz
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    Its not, that is a 2 D picture, trying to represent a 3 D mass embedded in 4 D spacetime. No wonder it is deceptive. It is a Hollywood caricature of Einstein's theory, which we can't really understand or visualize using pictures, we need to use math, then time can be identified easily. –  Jan 29 '17 at 00:49
  • Possible duplicates: http://physics.stackexchange.com/a/13839/2451 , http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/26440/2451 , http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/276742/2451 and links therein. – Qmechanic Jan 29 '17 at 06:36

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Another reason that the 2D picture is confusing, is that it shows a 3D solid distorting a 2D surface. In reality, familiar 3D objects are actually 4D (3 of space and 1 of time) and their mass distorts a 4D fabric woven from space and time.

Phil Wilson
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  • So it is there, but it is just too difficult for most people to understand so it is ignored by social media? Is there a more accurate visualization of this? – TheGamerPlayz Jan 29 '17 at 06:08
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    @gamerPlayz Probably try to read and understand the math and real physics of relativity, why you need time as a relative object like space to be able to deal with the constancy of the speed of light. If you understand special relativity you'll understand why we need 4 dimensions, and your study of general relativity will make more conceptual sense. – Bob Bee Jan 29 '17 at 06:55
  • All analogies are flawed, but the rubber sheet one at least captures two important facts: matter curves space time, and the curves of space time dictate the paths of matter. – Phil Wilson Jan 29 '17 at 07:34