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These equations specify how the geometry of space and time is influenced by whatever matter and radiation are present. [5] A version of non-Euclidean geometry, called Riemannian geometry, enabled Einstein to develop general relativity by providing the key mathematical framework on which he fit his physical ideas of gravity. [6]
For any curve and two points = and = on this curve, an affine connection gives rise to a map of vectors in the tangent space at into vectors in the tangent space at : =,, and () can be computed component-wise by solving the differential equation = () = () where () is the vector tangent to the curve at the point ().
The metric captures all the geometric and causal structure of spacetime, being used to define notions such as time, distance, volume, curvature, angle, and separation of the future and the past. In general relativity, the metric tensor plays the role of the gravitational potential in the classical theory of gravitation, although the physical ...
In a further development in his 1908 "Space and Time" lecture, [6] Minkowski gave an alternative formulation of this idea that used a real time coordinate instead of an imaginary one, representing the four variables (x, y, z, t) of space and time in the coordinate form in a four-dimensional real vector space. Points in this space correspond to ...
Thus, for example, the path of a planet orbiting around a star is the projection of a geodesic of the curved 4-dimensional spacetime geometry around the star onto 3-dimensional space. A curve is a geodesic if the tangent vector of the curve at any point is equal to the parallel transport of the tangent vector of the base point.
In physics, spacetime, also called the space-time continuum, is a mathematical model that fuses the three dimensions of space and the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum. Spacetime diagrams are useful in visualizing and understanding relativistic effects, such as how different observers perceive where and when events ...
Einstein used a more general geometry, pseudo-Riemannian geometry, to allow for the curvature of space and time that was necessary for the reconciliation; after eight years of work (1907–1915), he succeeded in discovering the precise way in which space-time should be curved in order to reproduce the physical laws observed in Nature ...
In mathematical physics, spacetime algebra (STA) is the application of Clifford algebra Cl 1,3 (R), or equivalently the geometric algebra G(M 4) to physics. Spacetime algebra provides a "unified, coordinate-free formulation for all of relativistic physics, including the Dirac equation, Maxwell equation and General Relativity" and "reduces the mathematical divide between classical, quantum and ...