A few questions about general relativity

Post Reply New Topic

I have a few questions about general relativity:
1) What's the purpose of metric tensors on the pseudo-Riemannian spacetime manifold? What do they represent in the theory of general relativity? I know their mathematical definition, but what exactly do they denote in the context of general relativity? Do they just denote how spacetime is curved?
2) Is the Lorentzian manifold the most used kind of pseudo-Riemannian manifold in GR? Is it always used?