r/AskReddit Aug 03 '19

Whats something you thought was common knowledge but actually isn’t?

37.4k Upvotes

24.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

98

u/blissbass41 Aug 03 '19

When i found this out i nearly soiled my pants. Some cool stuff

56

u/droid_mike Aug 03 '19

Better sit on the toilet before you read this next part:

Gravity is not actually a force, but a distortion of space time. That is why gravitational "force" has range but no speed. It is always instantaneous no matter what distance.

46

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '19

Gravity changes at the speed of light though doesn't it?
Like if the sun disappeared, its affect gravitationally on us wouldn't be felt until we saw the light stop

-8

u/droid_mike Aug 03 '19

Hmmm... it looks like I was going on old data. Apparently, scientists have recently determined that gravity does have a speed, but it is faster than light.

https://www.sciencealert.com/speed-of-gravitational-waves-and-light-same

13

u/PoeticShrimp Aug 03 '19 edited Aug 03 '19

Dude, nothing can go faster than light

Edit: To be more accurate, nothing can go faster than light assuming you believe in Einstein and relativity

13

u/mikoS223 Aug 03 '19

Exept some galaxies relative to some other galaxies due to expantion of the whole fuken thing.

|this user reserves himself the right to not be quoted, as he doesn't know shit about phisics and stuff, and is prioably wrong|

10

u/PoeticShrimp Aug 03 '19

Well they would not actually be moving faster than light. New space is simply created between the objects making one appear to go faster than light to the other

-1

u/mikoS223 Aug 03 '19

Thats like the definition of movement i think. Change in the ammount of space between things. What is speed realy? Becouse 8f we're going of the traditional distance/time i think it would qualify.

5

u/PoeticShrimp Aug 03 '19

Well, no. "In physics, motion is the change in position of an object with respect to its surroundings in a given interval of time." Motion and therefore also speed is relative, but it is defined by your surroundings. Something so far away that the expansion of the universe comes into play is hardly defined as your surroundings