Something I've heard physicists say but doesn't make sense to me is, "gravity is a just a distortion in space-time, it's not like the other forces." Can someone with more knowledge than me explain this? As far as I can tell:
1) General relativity is just a model.
2) The force that was observed as gravity can be modeled as a a distortion in space-time.
3) Thus (circular logic incoming), gravity is not actually a force, it's just a distortion in space-time, and that why it looks like a force.
This is just begging the question. I could say the exact same thing about any of the other forces between particles, just instead of using the permanent[0], I'd use the determinant[1] for fermions or the immanant[2] for anyons.
I remember in my electrodynamics class applying relativity to Coulomb's law, and seeing the magnetic force just pop out in the Taylor expansion (and I just learned the Feynman lectures does this too: II_13-6[3]). So what do physicists mean when they say gravity is special, or general relativity doesn't play well with quantum dynamics?
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_(mathematics)
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinant
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanant
[3]: https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_13.html
1) General relativity is just a model.
2) The force that was observed as gravity can be modeled as a a distortion in space-time.
3) Thus (circular logic incoming), gravity is not actually a force, it's just a distortion in space-time, and that why it looks like a force.
This is just begging the question. I could say the exact same thing about any of the other forces between particles, just instead of using the permanent[0], I'd use the determinant[1] for fermions or the immanant[2] for anyons.
I remember in my electrodynamics class applying relativity to Coulomb's law, and seeing the magnetic force just pop out in the Taylor expansion (and I just learned the Feynman lectures does this too: II_13-6[3]). So what do physicists mean when they say gravity is special, or general relativity doesn't play well with quantum dynamics?
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_(mathematics)
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinant
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanant
[3]: https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_13.html