Earth makes a dent

Put Earth on the net

When we place Earth, the net sinks into a dent. Anything with a lot of mass bends the spacetime around it. The apple falls toward Earth along this curved path. The apple bends the net too, but by far less than the size of an atom, so we cannot see it.

Why?In curved spacetime, an object tries to go along the straightest possible path. But that path itself curves toward Earth, so the apple ends up falling to Earth.

Learn moreThe dent on the screen is hugely exaggerated. If we measure the real curve with clocks, a clock on Earth’s surface runs about 0.02 s slower per year than one in empty space. Over a whole year, that adds up to only about 0.02 seconds.

Clock we are watching

A clock on Earth’s surface

How much slower

About 0.02 s slower per year

Clock rate

0.9999999993

seconds this clock ticks while a clock far away in empty space ticks one second · calculated with the formulas of relativity