> No amount of nicotine will ever let you understand an incomprehensible
> verbal construction. To demonstrate this I will take up my own challenge and
> reconstruct your sentence ("I conceive gravity as being a side-effect of the
> bending (compression?) of space/time by objects of large mass.") using the
> definitions of spacetime (or space/time) from my computer's dictionary ("the
> concepts of time and three-dimensional space regarded as fused in a
> four-dimensional continuum"), from Wikipedia ("any mathematical model that
> combines space and time into a single interwoven continuum"), and from The
> Random House Dictionary of the English Language ("1. the four-dimensional
> continuum , having three spatial coordinates. and one temporal coordinate,
> in which all physical quantities may be located. 2. the physical reality
> that exists within this four-dimensional continuum," plus the RH definitions
> of bend(v.) ("to force an object from a straight form into a curved or
> angular form or from a curved or angular form into some different form"),
> and compress(v.) ("to press together; to force into less space"). Thus we
> get six possible sentences:
>
> 1. I conceive gravity as being a side-effect of forcing [the concepts of
> time and three-dimensional space regarded as fused in a four-dimensional
> continuum] from a strait, curved, or angular form into some different form
> by objects of large mass.
>
> 2. I conceive gravity as being a side-effect of forcing [any mathematical
> model that combines space and time into a single interwoven continuum] from
> a strait, curved, or angular form into some different form by objects of
> large mass.
>
> 3. I conceive gravity as being a side-effect of forcing [the physical
> reality that exists within the four-dimensional continuum , having three
> spatial coordinates. and one temporal coordinate, in which all physical
> quantities may be located] from a strait, curved, or angular form into some
> different form by objects of large mass.
>
> 4. I conceive gravity as being a side-effect of pressing [the concepts of
> time and three-dimensional space regarded as fused in a four-dimensional
> continuum] together to force them into less space.
>
> 5. I conceive gravity as being a side-effect of pressing [any mathematical
> model that combines space and time into a single interwoven continuum]
> together to force it into less space.
>
> 6. I conceive gravity as being a side-effect of pressing [the physical
> reality that exists within the four-dimensional continuum , having three
> spatial coordinates. and one temporal coordinate, in which all physical
> quantities may be located] together to force it into less space.
>
> As you see, none of these sentence-forms conveys any physical (or other)
> meaning at all. Can some physicist reading this do any better, verbally? I
> doubt it.
>
>
> Shane Mage
>
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That's right, children; don't smoke pcp while reading Bas van Fraassen