"If you and a friend started walking straight north, both at the equator but a long distance apart, you would gradually get closer to each other until you colli

"If you and a friend started walking straight north, both at the equator but a long distance apart, you would gradually get closer to each other until you collided at the north pole." I always thought that was a nice way to drop one dimension down to get the intuition. To the metaphorical 2D ant they see two friends attracted to/falling towards each other, but they are going in a straight line on a curved surface and there are no forces at play.