Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by nsxwolf 3039 days ago
I don't like the elastic sheet analogy because it doesn't work without gravity, the very thing it's attempting to explain.
2 comments

I like it because it isn't quite as self-referential as it at first seems: the notion of gravity that it requires is not the notion of gravity it is explaining: it uses the colloquial and accessible idea of gravity (i.e. "things fall downwards") to describe a more precise idea of gravity (i.e. "things fall towards each other in accordance with mass").
This has always bothered me as well, and I'm surprised that this is the first time I've seen anyone else mention it!