New paper out: Free fall in curved spacetime
News Magdalena Kersting News Magdalena Kersting

New paper out: Free fall in curved spacetime

How can we visualise gravity in general relativity? My new article in Physics Education presents a new digital model that illustrates how warped time gives rise to gravity. I hope the model will act as a supplement to the use of the popular rubber sheet model that only takes spatial curvature into account.

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Stretching the Imagination
News Magdalena Kersting News Magdalena Kersting

Stretching the Imagination

A popular analogy compares the geometry of curved spacetime to a rubber sheet. Yet, science educators have shown that this representation can get in the way of a more abstract understanding of Einstein’s theory of gravity. The findings hint to a deeper mechanism about how human cognition works.

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Understanding Curved Spacetime
News Magdalena Kersting News Magdalena Kersting

Understanding Curved Spacetime

According to general relativity, we live in a four-dimensional curved universe. Since the human mind cannot visualize those four dimensions, a popular analogy compares the universe to a two-dimensional rubber sheet distorted by massive objects.

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Academic adventures in Australia
News Magdalena Kersting News Magdalena Kersting

Academic adventures in Australia

I recently moved to the other end of the world in the name of science. Join me on my academic adventures on my travel blog hosted by Titan, the science magazine of the University of Oslo 🌏

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Navigating Four Dimensions
News Magdalena Kersting News Magdalena Kersting

Navigating Four Dimensions

In curved spaces, geometry can play tricks on you. And tricky geometry lies at the heart of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. I wrote a feature for Lateral Magazine mapping out a geometric way of teaching relativity.

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General relativity in upper secondary school
News Magdalena Kersting News Magdalena Kersting

General relativity in upper secondary school

Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity is rarely present in school physics curricula due to its abstract nature. Yet, our research suggests that upper secondary students can obtain a qualitative understanding of general relativity. Read our latest research article to see how we introduced students to the world of relativity.

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