Warping Spacetime

Read 24.2 Spacetime and Gravity to understand how Einstein’s equivalence principle leads to the concept of curved spacetime.
One of the best analogies of General Relativity is that matter warps space-time and what we experience as “gravity” is simply the most natural (“straight-line”) path through this curved space. This is demonstrated beautifully in the Gravity Visualization Demo (you don’t have to watch the entire thing, although the whole first half is pretty cool).
Explore 24.3 Tests of General Relativity to learn about experimental evidence supporting Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
Watch this excellent video, which describes The eclipse photos that made Einstein famous.
With the crisp clarity of space telescopes, we can now capture incredible images of so-called “gravitational lenses”, which show how the gravity of a nearby galaxy can distort and bend the light from more distant galaxies. Here’s another incredible example from the Webb telescope.
Review 24.4 Time in General Relativity to explore how gravity affects the flow of time according to general relativity.
Passing near a black hole has the surprising effect of slowing time for the traveler, allowing him/her to effectively time-travel into the future. This is not science fiction, but a direct result of general relativity. One of my favorite movies, Interstellar, uses this idea to tell a beautiful story about a space-traveling father and his daughter. Check out my video The Science of Interstellar for a brief overview of all the ways that Interstellar got the science correct.