One of the greatest challenges of modern physics is to find a coherent method for describing phenomena, on the cosmic and microscale. For over a hundred years, to describe reality on a cosmic scale we have been using general relativity theory, which has successfully undergone repeated attempts at fa...
To describe phenomena on the scale of atoms, we use the second great theory: quantum mechanics, which differs from general relativity in basically everything. It uses flat space-time and a completely different mathematical apparatus
It's weird to me, that the common method of attempting to describe a four dimensional thing is to immediately reduce the three dimensional thing to two dimensions...
The word "curved" is problematic for the concept of space-time because it invokes one or two dimensional thought. Space-time is a four dimensional model.
The best description of the effect of gravity on space-time on my opinion is actually a joke... Gravity sucks :)
There is no such thing as a four dimensional "spacetime". That is a abstract math only concept, nothing to do with reality. Time is not a thing, nor is it a dimension. Reality is not curved or flat. That is abstract geometry that they are talking about, not reality. Only 3 abstract dimensions are required to locate anything in reality. Time is just when you want to examine these three dimensions.