Can Spacetime Shatter?

What would it take to tear a one-square-meter hole in the fabric of the universe? Inspired by a Physics Explained thought experiment, this episode treats spacetime like an engineering material—applying the physics of stretched steel and shattered glass to a medium that gravitational waves prove can bend, ripple, and deform. Beginning with LIGO’s detection of a distortion smaller than a proton, the journey moves through Young’s modulus, Griffith’s theory of fracture, the Planck force, and an estimated tearing energy of (10^{79}) joules per square meter. The mathematics ultimately converges at the Planck scale, where general relativity reaches its limit—and raises a provocative possibility: could black holes be cosmic pressure valves that prevent reality itself from breaking?