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A new way to visualize General Relativity

ScienceClic English · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Fundamental physicsCosmology & astrophysics

What it is

ScienceClic explains why the rubber sheet analogy for general relativity is misleading and offers a new visualization that includes the curvature of time and shows gravity as motion through curved spacetime.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Called the best visualization of general relativity by many commenters, who say it cleared up long-held misunderstandings of gravity.

  • 8 people recommended it
  • 6 different months
  • 4 strong recommendations
  • first 2020, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “This video really cleared up a lot of misunderstandings for me”

    Clears up misunderstandings of gravity via spacetime visualization

    zestyping, 2020-10 · Strong recommendation · in “Gravity is not a force – free-fall parabolas are straight lines in spacetime”

  2. “An absolute gem I've stumbled across is ScienceClic”

    Amazing relativity presentations from ScienceClic

    nemothekid, 2022-05 · Strong recommendation · in “PBS SpaceTime”

  3. “Here's the video that made me finally understand it”

    Made the commenter finally understand gravity as inertial motion

    nextaccountic, 2022-07 · Strong recommendation · in “Mass and angular momentum, left ambiguous by Einstein, get defined”

  4. “hands down the best visualization of general relativity I've seen.”

    Best visualization of GR

    lahwran, 2022-07 · Strong recommendation · in “Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious”

  5. “Another good video to visualize GR is this by ScienceClic”

    Good visualization of GR

    manigandham, 2020-10 · Recommendation · in “Gravity is not a force – free-fall parabolas are straight lines in spacetime”

  6. “Here’s a different visualisation that starts with what’s wrong with the rubber sheet”

    Visualization starting from what is wrong with rubber sheet

    ben_w, 2021-12 · Recommendation · in “Gravitational waves should permanently distort space-time”

  7. “A great example (to me) is this [1] for example.”

    Example of video making an idea clear

    Amezarak, 2023-03 · Recommendation · in “Why AI Won't Cause Unemployment”

  8. “probably the best and most innovative one I've seen.”

    Probably the best and most innovative spacetime visualization

    rfgplk, 2026-06 · Recommendation · in “Show HN: Gravity – interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to Einstein”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: general relativity, spacetime, curvature, gravity, rubber sheet analogy

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