Introducing the geometric concepts of general relativity with sector models
U. Kraus, Corvin Zahn, Sven Weissenborn · 2021
This chapter introduces sector models as a geometric tool to visualize the geometry of curved spaces. It is intended for readers who wish to teach the basics of general relativity at the secondary school level. The chapter is written keeping teachers in mind who want to teach the basics of general relativity at school. It introduces sector models and illustrates their use for teaching general relativity with a teaching unit on geodesics near a black hole. General relativity was developed a hundred years ago and at the outset was considered particularly abstract and hardly comprehensible. Progress in the development of audiovisual learning aids in the form of visualizations and interactive simulations is the focus of the chapter. The web application ViSeMo represents a digital realization of sector models. It offers possibilities to construct geodesics simple and fast. It introduces sector models and illustrates their use for teaching general relativity with a teaching unit on geodesics near a black hole.