how does a gravitating body warp or curve space?
452412
What Einstein developed in his General Theory of Relativity (published in 1915) was a totally new, mathematical description of gravity—one that linked space to time and mass to energy in a fundamentally geometrical fashion.  In other words, mass(-energy) shapes space(-time) instead of acting like a “force” in the traditional Newtownian sense.\n\nThus, in Newton’s description of gravity, one would say that all bodies exert an attractive gravitational force on one another.  In Einstein’s conception, one would say that all bodies change the underlying geometry of space (and time) in a way that causes them to be attracted to one another.\n\nWhat’s a little odd about this is that it’s a fundamental property of space(-time) in Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity that it is “warped” by the presence of mass(-energy).  So the answer to your question sounds a bit like an answer by fiat:  a gravitating body warps space because that’s what gravitating bodies do.\n\nThe caveat is that curvature or warping really only provides an analogy to what the equations tell us.  If you want to imagine the effects of an object on its surrouning space(-time), then you can think of it as changing the shape of space(-time) in its vicinity.  The distortion is real—we can measure its effects—but the images that are often presented (of flexible sheets of space-time with bowling balls or marbles rolling around on them) simply present analogous situations.\n\n\nRyan Wyatt\nRose Center for Earth & Space\nNew York, New York
268355
The geometry of the universe is non-euclidian. if you carry on going in a straight line you will eventually come back to your starting point.
320062
Warping of spacetime, analogy of spacetime as a piece of elastic fabric are just ways to make some mathematical concepts more understandable for laymen. There r hardcore mathematical description behind all these. It doesn't explain anything because u cannot understand the counterintuitive concept behind it and the hard math. It does describe gravity pretty well. Describe. Like all science, it describe. It explains how. It does not explain why. Why is a philosophical, or maybe religious, question.\n\nAnother analogy. An ant walk on a piece of paper. It walk straight ahead. When u bent the paper, u see the ant's path as a curve. If the paper is invisible, it appear as if some force has bent the path of the ant who is just walking a straightline on itself. This is too simplistic but hope u get the picture.\n\nCurvature of spacetime is for description of the geometry of paths. With the presence of gravity, the spacetime get curved, and the geometry of a straightline on a 1 spatial and one time dimentions spacetime becomes a curved line on a 3 spatial and 1 time dimensions spacetime, the spacetime we observe.\n\nWhy would an object with mass has gravitational field around it? why does electron have charges? why does exchange of photons create electric charges? u will never ever get down to the answer because whatever ingredient u used to cook up the answer need to be explain further. it is a never ending process. General Relativity doesn't explain why gravity, but describe how gravity.\n\n\n\n\nthey did not move to spacetime description from Newtonian, in an attempt to explain the why of gravity. They move becoz the spacetime description is more accurate in describing gravity. science cannot really explain why. If one day, they discovered gravitational pull is due to movement of gravitons between masses, the next question would be, why such movement could create gravitational pull. so instead of looking at this as an explanation of WHY, these gravitons would just be a even more detailed DESCRIPTION of HOW gravity works. No scientist know WHY things work. Nobody does. But a lot of scientists do know HOW things work. In the case of gravity, many does.
122786
The short version is that: mass bends space, and space tells mass how to move. In otherwords if space is curved a mass will move on a curved trajectory.\n\nThe same thing happens with light. It is travelling out there minding its own business but when it comes to a place where space is curved (near a mass) then the light will curve as well.\n\nThe link below shows an illustration of this, using a 2-dimensional sheet to represent space. \n\nThis is just an analogy, and of course space is actually 3-dimensional and curves -- don't try to form an image, our brains aren't wired for it. Just understand the 2-d analogy and realize that the real way to understand General Relativity is with the mathematics.
314905
Imagine a molten ball of liquid rock in space. It will take the shape of a sphere due to the gravitational pull - any other shape would be turned into a sphere by gravity over time. \n\nNow, set this sphere rotating. Due to centrifugal forces, the sphere will bulge slighty round its equator. There you have it, the shape of the Earth.
484687
A.) In his General Theory of Relativity, Einstein developed a mathematical description of gravity—one that links space to time and mass to energy in a fundamentally geometrical fashion. In other words, mass(-energy) shapes space(-time) instead of acting like a “force” in the traditional Newtonian sense.  (Thus, in Newton’s description of gravity, one would say that all bodies exert an attractive gravitational force on one another. In Einstein’s conception, one would say that all bodies change the underlying geometry of space-time in a way that causes them to be attracted to one another.)  Thus, our best understanding of gravity is that it’s a fundamental property of space-time to be “warped” by the presence of mass(-energy). So gravity is simply a property of space-time, and most likely, it came into existence at the same time.  (One caveat: curvature or warping really only provides an analogy to what the equations tell us. If you want to imagine the effects of an object on its surrounding space-time, then you can think of it as changing the shape of space-time in its vicinity. The distortion is real—we can measure its effects—but the images that are often presented of flexible sheets of space-time with bowling balls or marbles rolling around on them, for example, simply present analogous situations.)\n\nB.)  Spinning is a common attribute of objects in the Universe because the way things form virtually always leaves them in rotation, and once things get started rotating, it’s hard to make them stop.  It’s not intuitively obvious, but if you take, say, a cloud of gas and dust collapsing to form a planetary system, then averaging all the random motions of the particles will leave you with some tiny element of rotation.  As the collapse takes place, any rotation will be magnified, so you end up with planets revolving around their parent stars, and planets themselves rotating on their axes.\n\nC.)  It’s doubtful that we’ll ever acquire much in the way of interstellar real estate, simply because the distances involved are so great.  Our best hope is to carry on radio communication with them, but even at the speed of light, it would take decades or centuries for radio signals to travel between us and the stars currently within our range of communication.\n\n\nRyan Wyatt\nRose Center for Earth & Space\nNew York, New York
78121
Is it round?  This is due to gravity.  Gravity pulls with equal strength in all directions; therefore any variations from a spherical shape will lead to gravitational forces that bring the shape back into that of a sphere.\n \nThis is without considering the rotation of the earth, however.  The rotation of the earth adds centrifugal effects, which cause the earth to bulge slightly at its equator and flatten slightly at its poles.  (This is like twirling a rock on the end of a string and then letting go--the rock flies away from the twirler.)  Because of these centrifugal effects, the distance from the center of the earth to the surface of the earth is about 0.33% shorter at the poles compared to the equator.
419595
Gravity is relative, so there are no two points in space with precisely the same amount of gravity.  There will always be some gravitational pull even at very far away distances from other objects.  In fact even things which weigh almost nothing like light is affected by gravity.  Light waves can are bent by gravity which is why stars "twinkle".  Hope that was helpful.\n\nBy the way, the person named "Carbon based" who answered the question had a very nice equation but gave a way oversimplified answer.  He assumes there are only 2 objects in space.  The object and the second one with gravitational pull.  However, your "gravity" will be affected by every single object in the universe, not just the closest body.
666604
The reason that gravity can be described as a bending of space space is that it acts on everything equally. Electric charges and magnets don't--they attract some items, repel others, and have no effect on yet other things. I don't think that there is any way space could be bent that would be consistent with the behavior of these forces.
39004
Its not impractical because you have perpetual motion in space get it spinning and it will spin forever at the same speed.  No friction.  Thats the only way to do it because you can create Gravity like on startrek
1110928
Einstein explained gravity as a warp in the time-space continuum.  The best explanation I've ever seen was at a museum.  It's hard to explain with words, but imagine a square piece of fabric stretched taut on all 4 edges.  Now, place a weight (a ball, say, to represent a planet) in the center of that fabric.  It causes the fabric to stretch, and distort.  And any small items (marbles, say) that get in the area near the ball will roll toward the ball.
658826
just some heel to toe action. it's alot faster then you think, that's what creates the allusion of defining gravity.
952077
Its a general rule that things with mass will curve space time. This is through the theory of general relativity and universal gravitation. However, what we do not know is if gravity is responsible for frame dragging (where the mass actually twists space time) or just making a dent in it, or a combo of both. Additionally, many scientists are uncomfortable with relativity because it doesnt agree with quantum mechanics and the math is useless when applying it to black holes, both of which are equally real and can be proven. But why? Im afraid that that is a philosphical question that can be answered simply: they just do. And dont go there because that is a pandora's box, just keep things simple.
705527
Any object that appears to be forced by gravity can be used as an example.  A baseball appears to move in an arc.  It, however is moving in a straight line.  The gravity of the earth bends the space that that straight line is in, causing it to appear curved.
598318
The basic idea behind “folding” space or time comes from Einstein’s General theory of Relativity, so if you’ll bear with me for a moment…  What he proposed was a totally new, geometrical description of space and time that led to a different description of gravity—one that linked space to time and mass to energy in a fundamentally geometrical fashion. In other words, mass(-energy) shapes space(-time) instead of acting like a “force” in the traditional Newtownian sense. This alteration in the fundamental geometry of space-time is often described as the “curvature” or “bending” of space. \n\n(Thus, in Newton’s description of gravity, one would say that all bodies exert an attractive gravitational force on one another; “space” is just the place where it happens. In Einstein’s conception, one would say that all bodies change the underlying geometry of space—and time, too—in a way that causes them to be attracted to one another.)\n\nSo we often talk of space-time being “warped” or “curved” (honestly, “folded” sounds a little extreme) by the presence of mass(-energy). The only we see space-time deformed in the Universe around us is by the presence of a lot of matter—light being bent around the Sun, clocks being affected by Earth’s gravity, that sort of thing.  To do something similar (like the “Smallville” example) would require very large quantities of mass or energy.\n\nThe caveat is that curvature or bending really only provides an analogy to what the equations tell us. If you want to imagine the effects of an object on its surrouning space(-time), then you can think of it as changing the shape of space(-time) in its vicinity. The distortion is real—we can measure its effects—but the images that are often presented (of flexible sheets of space-time with bowling balls or marbles rolling around on them) simply present analogous situations.\n\nThe issue with “folding” is that it suggests something like a crease in space-time, and that’s problematic in the sense that gentle “curves” or “warps” are mathematically simple to describe, but adding anything like a hard edge becomes tricky.  Plus, to make the transition from one part of space-time to another requires bringing those two points in contact—a challenge that makes “folding” look simple!\n\nJ. Richard Gott wrote a book, “Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time” that addresses the “reality” of time travel from the perspective of contemporary physics:\nhttp://www.powells.com/partner/30700/biblio/0395955637\n\n\nRyan Wyatt\nRose Center for Earth & Space\nNew York, New York
628725
Gravity also curves the instruments. The reason that we dont notice this are many. One is that Since we are part of this very space time and that we refer to the curved spacetime to check the curveness of the instrument are the prime reasons
92597
Okay. Everything that has mass has gravity. You and I have our own innate gravity. So does your pencil, your computer, the air you breathe. \n\nIf you think of space-time (see Einstein) as the surface of a huge trampoline on which everything sits, then mass sits on top of that trampoline. But if you put a bowling ball on a trampoline, it puckers the surface and smaller things are drawn towards it, and it is drawn towards the smaller thing, if only a little bit. Similarly, if you roll a marble around the bowling ball, it will circle many times before it finally crashes into the bowling ball. (That how orbiting works.)\n\nThis is simplified, of course, but it helps to understand the concepts. If you are interested in the subject, I would recommend reading Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan.\n\nGood Luck!