Ok, I'm going to try to ask this complex question the best I can so you could possibly explain it better than I heard so I could grasp and understand it better.
On one of The Universe episodes, I think, they were talking about how gravity isn't a force pulling down. Instead it's the act of the curvature of space pushing in. Now I think I understand it after thinking about how to ask the question, a little. I guess my question is why have we been always told it's a force pulling down. Or is it possible I totally missed what they were saying and misinterpreted. And any expansion on the idea of gravity pushing in would be appreciated.
The pictures you post are excellent and I really appreciate looking at them. Great work.
The general reason it's thought of as a force pulling down is the fact of Newton's Law of Gravity suggests it is. While Newton's idea has been proven false, the calculated effects are very close to the real thing so many scientist still use his laws as reference as they are very easy to understand and the observed affects are very real.
Space-Time is in some ideas is basically like a
membrane and gravity is the affect that energy and mass have on that membrane through vibrations of incredibly small vibrating strings. (a product of
M-Theory which came from String-Theory) In truth, gravity is still considered a force just like the rest of the
fundamental forces. (weak, strong, electromagnetic, and of course gravity)
Basically, the mass and energy create a stretching (curvature) of the space-time membrane. This stretching is what causes other nearby mass to basically fall into the "gravity well" created by the curvature of the space-time membrane. The more mass / energy, the bigger the gravity well created. Hence, we (as people) stick to the Earth rather than floating away in space and the Earth orbits an even bigger mass. (the Sun) Our solar system orbits the super massive black hole that makes our galaxy (The Milky Way) exist rather than just flying apart at the seams.
I'm still at work, hopefully I explained that without screwing it up. Read some of the links, they can probably do a better job of explaining it than I can right now.
