Guv=8piTuv what is it?

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

skaught

The field its covered in blood
Valued Senior Member
A friend of mine has this equation painted on his wall. He wants e to get an artist friend of mine to do a nicer painting of it. He couldn't seem to explain to me very well in layman's terms what it meant though. I am completely ignorant with this stuff, but find it fascinating! Could someone explain to me what the hell this represents?

Please!

Guv=8piTuv
 
Ok...after a little investa-googling...it seems to be one of Einstein's field equations.

When we say that we get GR in the IR, we really mean GR and not something else. Eg:
Guv = 8pi Tuv, where Guv is the Einstein tensor and Tuv is the stress energy tensor. This classical solution is valid for any value of the metric field, weak or strong and has the full geometrical significance that you would expect.
Click to expand...

Although...I'm sure one of the physics guys will be able to explain it better.
 
Waaaayyyyyyyy over my head broseph... Maybe instead of asking for laymans terms, i should just say 5 year old terms...
 
Fuck if I know...I just posted copy-pasta. When it comes to recipes for pot brownies...I'm your man...field equations...not so much.

I'm sure AN or one of the other smart guys will be along soon enough, and tell you what it really means.
 
http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/EinsteinEquations.html#symbolic

ein.field.sm.gif


This elegant symbolic formulation of Einstein's general theory of relativity cannot be used for actual calculations, but it clearly shows the principle that "matter tells spacetime how to curve, and curved space tells matter how to move"(John Wheeler, Princeton University and the University of Texas at Austin) . The left side of the equation contains all the information about how space is curved, and the right side contains all the information about the location and motion of the matter. General relativity is beautiful and simple (to a physicist), but mathemat ically it's very complicated and subtle.
Click to expand...
 
To give you an approximate idea of what the equation is about, it is essentially the Einsteinian equivalent of Newton's law of Universal Gravitation $$F=GMm/r^2$$.
 
Thanks to everybody so far. though it still is going mostly right over my head.

Also, how do I say this equation?
 
skaught said:
No sir, thank you for expanding my brain! Any links will be tremendously helpful!

I decided to do the painting myself for my friend, I'll post pics of it here when I complete it!
Click to expand...

Bad ass! I want to see it Scott.

Expanding your brain is awesome...It's one of the reasons I'm a member of Sciforums. Where else do you have access to multiple Phd's in physics willing to answer your simple questions? No where.

Way to go Sciforum's physicists! you rock!
 
@mac, yeah, to think that I can come here and ask questions and get answers for free is awesome!
 
Oh yeah btw, i havent painted anything since like, 10th grade, so it should be interesting!
 
prometheus said:
I'm afraid you are being deceived. Squared is a new sock of Reiku who you may or may not know is someone with far more physics ego than physics ability. He has made a huge number of errors in the post I am about to quote and explain,
Click to expand...

:eek: OH GOD NO!!!!! Thank you so much Prom for straightening this out for me. You sir, are the gentleman and scholar!

Squared, Reiku, you <removed> stupid <removed>! Go <removed> yourself!

Mod note: edited for language
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Wikiversity has an interesting walk-through of the main points of the metric and curved space-time... The regular old Pythagorean theorem, gives distances for flat spaces, depending on the dimension of the space; the index notation makes for a convenient shorthand for tensor notation. Tensors are a generalization of the vector concept. Karl Friedrich Gauss started the investigations of metric distances and angles on curved surfaces. his student Bernhard Riemann continued that investigation and Albert Einstein was able to derive the theory of general relativity of curved space-time using those ideas of curved spaces.

Introduction to general relativity

A great many attempts have been made to explain the basic concepts of general relativity to non-experts. These can range from museum exhibits that roll a ball around on a curved surface, to treatments that are mathematically quite daunting. This article will attempt to explain it at the level of undergraduate, or ambitious high-school, mathematics and physics.

The general relativity formulation of gravity states that gravity arises from the curvature of spacetime, and, in analogy with the classical notion that massive objects create a gravitational field attracting other objects, matter causes spacetime to curve. In the words of physicist John Wheeler, "Space tells matter how to move, matter tells space how to curve."
Click to expand...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top