It is difficult to envision curved space. Part of the problem is our lack of familiarity with curved space even though we live on the surface of a sphere. We do not notice the effect of the curvature of our space in much of our day-to-day activities because locally the curvature is small and the surface of Earth can be considered flat. To help facilitate an understanding of the curvature of empty space around massive objects we must understand the "maps" that we use in general relativity.
This worksheet allows you to explore the difference between the Schwarzschild map and space itself. There are two options in how to run these exercises:
| Run Locally | Run via Browser |
|---|---|
| Download the osp_gr.jar and osp_gr_worksheet1.pdf files. Double-click the “osp_gr.jar” file. When the jar file opens, select the “Relativity Worksheets” button at the bottom of the splash screen. Navigate to the “Worksheet #1” folder where you will find the interactive curricular materials that go with these exercises. | To run via your web browser, simply select one of the links in the outline after the "Description" link. |
You may directly access (browse) the binary directory containing jar files. Note that the binary directory also contains code libraries (jar files) that are not designed to run as stand-alone applications.