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   binkle (binkle@clubcyberia.co)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 06:26:46 JST binkle
   Could someone who is more familiar with physics explain something to me?
   
   How is "the curvature of space" as an explanation for gravity not simply a metaphor for "the axiomatic force acts in the direction and proportionality of the mass of objects", which fixes some underlying/assumed 3 dimensional grid of distance while allowing its expression in reality to be morphed or altered?
   
   Put another way: aren't those two things equivalent and why is one treated as more "real" than the other? Why is "curvature" talked about as if it's some fundamental reality rather than just a convenient metaphor for explaining the concept?
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     Bread up, Bro (sickburnbro@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 06:26:43 JST Bread up, Bro

     in reply to

     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     @WandererUber @binkle I just refuse to believe that light is both a wave and a particle and has no mass. It just feels like a bunch of things that we've observed that don't all align and we've thrown in a bag.
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     Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer (wandereruber@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 06:26:44 JST Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer

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     @binkle you are welcome friend enjoy the physics
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     Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer (wandereruber@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 06:26:45 JST Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer

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     @binkle it is a reality because it curves light
     
     A photon has no rest mass and time does not advance in its reference frame, yet its path "bends" around heavy objects
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     binkle (binkle@clubcyberia.co)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 06:26:45 JST binkle

     in reply to

     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     @WandererUber ah that makes sense yes I wasn't thinking about light being massless. Thank you friend :hapyretard:
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     Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer (wandereruber@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 06:34:29 JST Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer

     in reply to

     • Bread up, Bro
     @sickburnbro @binkle There is a common tendency even among physicists to want something beautiful and orderly instead of accepting things as they are. That's how you get supersymmetry and string theory.
     The intricacies are way more involved than "wave" or "particle" at this point. Explaining light is a bit like that clip where they ask Feynman to ask how a magnet works.
     You can simplify it but it's just gonna be wrong. All that to say: someone probably explained it to you wrong. It sure happened to me.
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     Bread up, Bro (sickburnbro@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 06:34:29 JST Bread up, Bro

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     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     @WandererUber @binkle ferromagnets are super trippy too.
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     Bread up, Bro (sickburnbro@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 10:29:24 JST Bread up, Bro

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     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     • petra
     • James_Dixon
     @James_Dixon @petra @WandererUber @binkle guys this is like the literally gayest thing to start a blood feud over
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     James_Dixon (james_dixon@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 10:29:25 JST James_Dixon

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     • Bread up, Bro
     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     • petra
     @petra @sickburnbro @WandererUber @binkle Go fuck yourself, faggot.
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     petra (petra@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 10:29:26 JST petra

     in reply to

     • Bread up, Bro
     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     • James_Dixon
     @James_Dixon @sickburnbro @WandererUber @binkle
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     petra (petra@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 10:29:27 JST petra

     in reply to

     • Bread up, Bro
     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     • James_Dixon

     @James_Dixon @sickburnbro @WandererUber @binkle You should trying actually understanding things before commenting.

     It's not done because it was wrong. It was a fudge and people who didn't understand would take it literally when in fact there was no mass change at all.

     That you are confused now is exactly why it's not taught that way now.

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     James_Dixon (james_dixon@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 10:29:27 JST James_Dixon

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     • Bread up, Bro
     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     • petra
     @petra @sickburnbro @WandererUber @binkle > That you are confused now is exactly why it's not taught that way now.
     
     I'm not the least bit confused.
     
     We don't actually know if a photon has a rest mass or not, as that article makes clear.
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     petra (petra@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 10:29:28 JST petra

     in reply to

     • Bread up, Bro
     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     • James_Dixon
     @James_Dixon @sickburnbro @WandererUber @binkle Rest mass (not resting mass) is always implied - the mass of object in it's own relativistic rest frame, m_0.
     
     Early textbooks used to fudge things and talk about relativistic mass to make things look like more familiar Newtonian physics. That's not done any more. There is only a particle's intrinsic rest mass, or just mass.
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     James_Dixon (james_dixon@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 10:29:28 JST James_Dixon

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     • Bread up, Bro
     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     • petra
     @petra @sickburnbro @WandererUber @binkle > Early textbooks used to fudge things and talk about relativistic mass to make things look like more familiar Newtonian physics. That's not done any more.
     
     The fact that something isn't done anymore doesn't make the earlier usage wrong.
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     petra (petra@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 10:29:29 JST petra

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     • Bread up, Bro
     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     • James_Dixon
     @James_Dixon @sickburnbro @WandererUber @binkle Yeah it is. He's saying that exact thing, that photons have no mass. They do have energy and momentum. Not the same thing.
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     James_Dixon (james_dixon@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 10:29:29 JST James_Dixon

     in reply to

     • Bread up, Bro
     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     • petra
     @petra @sickburnbro @WandererUber @binkle > Yeah it is. He's saying that exact thing, that photons have no mass.
     
     No. He's saying they have no resting mass.
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     James_Dixon (james_dixon@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 10:29:30 JST James_Dixon

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     • Bread up, Bro
     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     @sickburnbro @WandererUber @binkle > and has no mass.
     
     It's not that simple. See:
     
     https://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/ParticleAndNucl...
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     Bread up, Bro (sickburnbro@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 10:39:17 JST Bread up, Bro

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     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     • petra
     @petra @WandererUber @binkle I always try to keep Maxwell's equations in mind. When the model doesn't fit the observations, you throw it out or modify.
     
     There are an awful lot of people very wedded to "we know how the universe works"
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     petra (petra@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 14-Aug-2026 10:39:18 JST petra

     in reply to

     • Bread up, Bro
     • Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer
     @sickburnbro @WandererUber @binkle

     It just feels like a bunch of things that we've observed that don't all align and we've thrown in a bag.

     An honest physicist would agree.

     The important thing to them is they've come up with a mathematical model that is predictive to great accuracy. That is both interesting and useful.

     But a mathematical model is still just a model, no different than metaphors for reality we create in our heads ... "it's a force that pushes," "it's a space that curves".

     We're still Greeks trying to understand things we don't even really have words for for a universe we cannot experience directly except through the senses we have been given.