An alternative to the “ball on rubber sheet” model of gravity is “twisting a lump out of a sheet of silly putty.” You get the same curvature without relying on gravity to serve as a model of gravity (which always bothered me a bit)
For clarity, here’s what I mean: if you flatten out some silly putty (or pizza dough should work) then pinch and twist together some of the sheet into a lump, that pulls along the surrounding putty. So, if you drew lines on the putty then pulled it into lumps, you’d see the distortion to the lines.
For clarity, here’s what I mean: if you flatten out some silly putty (or pizza dough should work) then pinch and twist together some of the sheet into a lump, that pulls along the surrounding putty. So, if you drew lines on the putty then pulled it into lumps, you’d see the distortion to the lines.