Feature Stories 2021: Physics Undergraduate Research Presentation by Christopher Gilbert

Abstract: The most common misconception regarding gravity, confounded by the complexity of the truth, is that the cause of gravityis the curvature of space. This presentation seeks to demonstrate that, for anything with a velocity much lower than the speed of light, which is the realm of human experience, the cause of gravity is the warping of time, not the curvature of space. Using Einstein’s Field Equation and the Shwartzchild Metric, it can be shown that the effect of special curvature drops off with lower velocity, leaving temporal warping as the dominant factor.

Advisor: Dr. Gaurav Khanna

Full presentation: 2020-Gilbert_G