"AngleWyrm" wrote in message
news:TP3Ob.83590$xy6.143355@attbi_s02...

snip

Yea, Newton; the Moon is travelling just fast enough to fall around the
Earth. Nice. Problem with his idea was when he said (in part) that gravity
is proportional to the mass of the objects...Looked good on paper until
Galileo dropped a cannon ball and a bullet from the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
"Hey guys: They hit the ground at the same time!" So much for gravity
being
proportional to the mass of the objects.

This is what happens when you don't read *all* the chapters of the book.

Yes, Newton said F = -G * m * M / r^2

He also said F = m * a

Do the math: (sHead, you may leave the classroom now)

F = m * a = -G * m * M / r^2

dividing by m gives us

a = -G * M / r^2

no dependence on m...

snip

Is it just me, or is it just a matter of point-of-view? Whether we call it
a
distortion in space-time, or call it a distortion in the course of
objects,
the result is the same, yes? Seems a little cleaner to me to distort an
object's geodesic; doesn't invoke a mysterious fabric of space-time to
distort.

Actually, in GR it is called "mass-energy". Whether it 'looks' like matter
or energy or some mixture of the two depends on the relative velocity
between the object and the FOR of the observer. At zero velocity it looks
like stationary matter. At c it looks like energy, at any other velocity it
looks like matter with kinetic energy.

I lose touch when they tell me changes in velocity are communicated by
gravity waves which travel at the speed of light.

Velocity, and its changes, are relative to the measured object and the
measuring FOR. Changes are not "communicated" from one point to another.
The have the interrelationship of two points as a prerequisite. Regardless
of the acceleration applied, the bridge is still stationary WRT the engine
room.

Then they go hunting for
black holes, dark matter and gravitons, and build Laser Interferometer
Gravitational Wave Observatories.

They have already found everything on the list except gravitons - black
holes, dark matter, and gravity waves. IMO, gravitons will never be found,
but we won't know for sure until we look.

Could it be that this idea of bodies interacting with the gravitation from
a
future location, that arrives at light speed delays, is just a wee stretch
of the chalkboard?

Are you talking "time travel?" Or are you still just struggling with
"space-time" as a means of plotting events as points and diagramming
trajectories as "world-lines"?


Tom Davidson
Richmond, VA