But despite all the things that spacetime enables us to predict and know, it isn’t real in the same way that an atom is real. There’s nothing you can do to “detect” spacetime directly; you can only detect the individual quanta of matter and energy that exist within your spacetime. We’ve found a description of spacetime in the form of Einstein’s General Relativity that can successfully predict and explain every physical phenomenon we’ve ever observed or measured, but as far as exactly what it is — and whether it’s “real” or not — that’s not a question that science has yet discovered the answer to.
Spacetime: is it real and physical, or just a calculational tool?
I tend to think of it a simply a "calculation tool". We can use it to successfully predict the behavior of physical objects but we can't actually detect/measure spacetime independently of physical objects. For example what is space except a distance measure between to objects?
Do you believe spacetime is real? And, what makes it real?
Spacetime: is it real and physical, or just a calculational tool?
I tend to think of it a simply a "calculation tool". We can use it to successfully predict the behavior of physical objects but we can't actually detect/measure spacetime independently of physical objects. For example what is space except a distance measure between to objects?
Do you believe spacetime is real? And, what makes it real?