• Question: From tobias, What is the time space continuum?

    Asked by to Daniel on 14 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Daniel Roach

      Daniel Roach answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      Good question…

      Look around you and you see your world in motion. The room you sit in has three dimensions, length, breadth & height. But you also have time. A very smart guy 100 or so years ago called Albert Einstein realised that time could be treated in very much the same way as space – and thats there were certain connections between space and time. This was called ‘the theory of relativity’.

      Now, when we talk about space-time, we are talking about a four dimensional thing. Your computer sits in front of you and it is still, right? Ah, but it’s actually moving! It’s still – not moving – in three dimensions, but moves forward at a constant rate in time. That’s space-time.

      A continuum is a science word that means that things vary smoothly and don’t stop abruptly. An example of a space continuum might be the surface of the water in your bath – it ripples but is smooth and does not have a big hole in the middle where the water goes around it, or sticks up in spikes.

      The space-time continuum is simply a way of saying we treat time and space all as one thing – we don’t treat time as a special thing, but that time and space are all one smooth, continuous surface in four dimensions – like a really weird bath!

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