Episode 136: Introduction to General Relativity
The Science of Everything Podcast
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The Metric Tensor and the Real Universe
The metric tensor is this 4 by 4 matrix the elements of which are functions of the coordinates of space time so in theory they can be very complicated but in practice we usually assume they're fairly simple. This metric tensor tells us the shape the overall shape of space and time. Now there's one very important aspect of the metric tensor which I haven't mentioned and it actually applies to other mathematical objects that we've been talking about as well such as covariant derivatives and velocity vectors. We'll talk about some actual real solutions to Einstein's equations that are actually sort of feasible and can be computed next episode.
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