Measuring Intrinsic Curvature of Space with Electromagnetism

• Mason Mabin ^[1] ; Maria Becker ^[1] ; Herman Batelaan ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Nebraska
• Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 54, Nº. 7, 2016, págs. 416-419
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The concept of curved space is not readily observable in everyday life. The educational movie “Sphereland” attempts to illuminate the idea. The main character, a hexagon, has to go to great lengths to prove that her world is in fact curved. We present an experiment that demonstrates a new way to determine if a two-dimensional surface, the 2-sphere, is curved. The behavior of an electric field, placed on a spherical surface, is shown to be related to the intrinsic Gaussian curvature. This approach allows students to gain some understanding of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which relates the curvature of spacetime to the presence of mass and energy. Additionally, an opportunity is provided to investigate the dimensionality of Gauss’s law.