Chapter 7: A Flotsam from the Vortex
For demonstration purposes, visualize the relativistic universe in two dimensions as a thin sheet of rubber stretched taut. A massive object representing a star—say, a ball bearing—will cause the rubber to indent around it. Another ball bearing on the sheet, traveling nearby, will have its path altered by that indentation (while it, of course, makes an indentation of its own). This, in a simple way, simulates the effects of gravity in our rubber sheet universe.
Suppose, somehow, that this sheet of rubber is punctured. A little hole exists with striations around its perimeter. A ball bearing rolling near the hole will also have its course altered, and may even be in danger of falling directly through the hole and out of the rubber sheet universe entire
