nathan_compton 3 hours ago

I think that might oversimplify things, in addition to being a model-laden description. There are empty-space solutions to GR (and indeed many a physicist has found the intuition that there is nothing but empty space appealing, cf geometrodynamics) and in these situations spacetime itself interacts with itself, no particles at all.

In any case, I would say this is a somewhat bold description of what we know about gravity.

  • quantadev 42 minutes ago

    You can disprove my statement by naming something gravity does other than add a shape to spacetime, if you want. Saying "I think you're probably wrong, but I just can't say why" is not an argument.

amy214 3 hours ago

It's also worth pointing out gravitation waves are a thing (have been detected by LaWD or Laser Wave of Gravitation Detector). Does not mean it's not changing the spacetime shape, indeed, these are a type of ripple in spacetime as might occur if Sally Struthers did a jumping jack.

  • quantadev 25 minutes ago

    Yes, by "the shape of spacetime" that refers to every specific location in spacetime having a specific shape associated to it. It you want to expand your view out across a range of space and/or time, yes you can see waves, but those waves are still nothing but just waves of variations in "the shape of spacetime". Because we haven't proven the existence of a graviton yet.