Freaky Thing About Gravity
 

Did you know that scientists have absolutely no idea about what causes gravity? None whatsover. I'm not making this up.

Sure, they can model what gravity does in a particular case, but not a clue about why. Does that strike anybody as odd?

It gets even better: scientists don't even have any plausible theories about the mechanism of how gravity operates. You'd think they'd say, "well, it might be a, b or c, but we just don't know yet." But they don't. They apparantly can't even dream up a theory about the mechanism of how gravity works. You probably think I'm joking but I'm not. Look it up.

Re: Freaky Thing About Gravity
 

Before someone goes and Wikis it...

What's YOUR theory?

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Don't have a clue. I wiki'd it and there isn't anything at all in there. What's strange is that encyclopedias seldom devote more than a line to the fact that nobody has a clue why gravity works. Kind of like they can't get their mind around the fact that something so important has no explanation.

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Well, can't help ya there. I just throw rocks.

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Kind of like they can't get their mind around the fact that something so important has no explanation.

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Here the other day I googled "Universe, explain", because... you know, I sort of wondered what's up with all that stuff.

They didn't know that either! [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

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They figured it out. They're just not telling anyone.

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Science isn't about why things work, it's about how things work.

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Why isnt anyone talking about bending spacetime? or has that theory gotten thrown out w/o me knowing it?

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Did you know that scientists have absolutely no idea about what causes gravity? None whatsover. I'm not making this up.

Sure, they can model what gravity does in a particular case, but not a clue about why. Does that strike anybody as odd?

It gets even better: scientists don't even have any plausible theories about the mechanism of how gravity operates. You'd think they'd say, "well, it might be a, b or c, but we just don't know yet." But they don't. They apparantly can't even dream up a theory about the mechanism of how gravity works. You probably think I'm joking but I'm not. Look it up.

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When did you assume that scientists knew how/why gravity works?

The only explinations we have, thusfar, are regarding the nature of gravity: what it seems to be like. Relativity was a massive breakthrough, and the answers to your questions will be the next, perhaps. The formulation of string theory depends on these answers currently, and I'm guessing it's the focus of a lot of effort.

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Science isn't about why things work, it's about how things work.

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There isnt anything that tells us 'why' things work.

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They figured it out. They're just not telling anyone.

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Ah, yes. And "they" are doing it for our own good, right? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Re: Freaky Thing About Gravity
 

Here is somewhat of a theory that tries to explain the interconnectedness of everything (gravity operates between all matter in our universe, etc).

http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/...iverse/id/5864

I'm not saying this is scientific, and that site probably has some weird superstitious tendencies, but I found this particular page quite eloquent.

Re: Freaky Thing About Gravity
 

except they have ideas.

One theory is that there is a particle called a graviton. There are places looking for this right now LIGO in Louisiana and VIRGO in Italy are two of them.

String theory also tries to explain gravity.

Yes they do not know for sure what causes gravity, but to say they have no ideas on the subject is not exactly true

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Why isnt anyone talking about bending spacetime? or has that theory gotten thrown out w/o me knowing it?

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Why isnt anyone talking about bending spacetime? or has that theory gotten thrown out w/o me knowing it?


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It hasn’t been thrown out as far as I know, but it just hasn’t been that satisfactory. What thing in empty space is being bent? And what attribute of a massive object creates this bending in the first place?

edit - As far as what’s being bent, I suppose it’s spacetime, but I think the pertinent question is how a massive object so effects spacetime.

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All those M-Theorists and Loop Quantum Gravity theorists would probably disagree.

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and scientist have absolutely no idea why you even exist [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

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Why isnt anyone talking about bending spacetime? or has that theory gotten thrown out w/o me knowing it?

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When scientists say that spacetime is being bent by the presence of mass, it is in a way an analogy. It describes what happens, but not how. It is just a way to think of it. This analogy came from relativity.

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It is called Minkowski space if you want to look it up

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Matter warps space time; that warp is gravity. Duh.

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From what I understand, the biggest mystery about gravity is that it should be much more powerful than it is. String theorists believe it is leaking away into another dimension.

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One theory is that there is a particle called a graviton. There are places looking for this right now LIGO in Louisiana and VIRGO in Italy are two of them.

String theory also tries to explain gravity.

Yes they do not know for sure what causes gravity, but to say they have no ideas on the subject is not exactly true

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The search for the quantum of gravity is one of the great projects in physics for the 21st century.

I agree that the "no ideas" comment is offside and uneducated.

Right now when it comes to gravity, we're in a similar place physicists were 110 years ago, speaking of the "ether" and such as the medium for the propogation of electromagnetism. Now we're just looking for a new "ether". That or, like EM, the quantum associated with the force, in EM the photon, in GR the graviton.

IMO, it's only a matter of time.

Re: Freaky Thing About Gravity
 

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Why isnt anyone talking about bending spacetime? or has that theory gotten thrown out w/o me knowing it?

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When scientists say that spacetime is being bent by the presence of mass, it is in a way an analogy. It describes what happens, but not how. It is just a way to think of it. This analogy came from relativity.

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I don't think calling it an "analogy" is fair to the theory.

It pretty much is what happens. Yes we do not know why, but that doesn't mean we don't know what happens.

Wiki "gravitational lensing". It provides ample evidence that the bowling ball/trampoline GR effect is, in fact, a correct model.

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Wiki "gravitational lensing". It provides ample evidence that the bowling ball/trampoline GR effect is, in fact, a correct model.

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It does provide ample evidence that the mathematical articulations of GR are valid, I'm not contesting that. The theory is sound for objects large and slow, but this does not mean that there is a literal concomitant to every point in the theory.

Theory is here to tell us the nature of a subject existent, but GR can not do exactly that. A non-classical theory like either relativity or QM can give only mathematical constructs that explain everything in certain terms, the "reality" behind them is something altogether different and not as easily apprehended.

There is no matress for our solar syatem to sit on, but whatever is happening acts much like a matress, get it?

Cam

Re: Freaky Thing About Gravity
 

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There is no matress for our solar syatem to sit on, but whatever is happening acts much like a matress, get it?

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Don't worry. I get it.

As I was saying, the problem lies in discovering either what the mattress is, or what the mattress is made of.

It is my personal belief that gravity quanta will be discovered sometime this century, and I hope it's in my lifetime. Hell I'd love to be the discoverer. Automatic Nobel Prize. Greatest discovery of the 21st century.

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Any ideas on how to validate it's existence

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If there exist gravity quanta, we just need instruments sensitive enough to detect them. They will most readily be observed around neutron stars, I would think, where gravity is huge but not infinite like a black hole.

If it is more like an "ether", who knows.

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I think we need to discover what mass is before we can figure out gravity i.e. someone needs to find the Higgs Boson to prove it actually exist. Then we could do with filling in the other holes in the Standard Model, and then we'll be getting somewhere.