Alex McColgan

All of the objects in this image are squares.

However, they are squares that are obeying our rule that all their lines must be diverging away from each other.

This leads to the very strange situation where you can have 5 squares all meeting up at a corner instead of the usual 3 that is possible in normal 2D space.

Alright, this seems a little confusing.

What does it mean if space is hyperbolic?

Well, let's consider what it is we are curving around.

You might have noticed when we talked about our spherical shape that there must be something we are curving around.

That direction of curvature is in regards to time.

Imagine, if you will, a series of timelines.

We go a little more in depth with the interplay between space and time in my last video, which I would really recommend you check out.

But for now, just remember for this model that objects in time move forward along their timelines in the direction of up, or the future.

If they move left or right, they are moving through space, getting closer to each other.

If we introduce a large mass into this model, it warps the timelines.

Now, if you were a small object travelling along one of those arrows that got too close to the mass, suddenly your path of travel no longer goes directly up towards the future, it pulls you left or right towards the mass.

There are several reasons for this, but the essential thing to recognise here is that now your straight path towards the future pulls you in towards the planet.

so you'll have to accelerate away from it just to stay on a straight path.

In a nutshell, you are experiencing gravitational pull.

Even the planet is affected by this.

The atoms on either side of it are squeezed towards the centre of mass, as if it were being forced down a narrow tube by giant invisible hands.

Let's get back to hyperbolic space.