DS: "non-gravity well space-time"

I am not aware of any part of the universe that qualifies as "non-gravity well space-time". Every point that I know of is under the effect of gravity..

The gravity well curvature is certainly a lot flatter out there in the vast expanses of nothingness (absence of matter). But it is not totally flat. There is still some curvature.

As for the scenario of being in the middle of a star cluster, that too is within a gravity well. And here you have a possibility of the gradient being locally flat, yet you are still deep inside the gravity well.

If anyone is having trouble picturing that, you can imagine two water wells.. Both are deep. Up a certain way from the bottom, the two merge into one so that at ground level (the top of the well) there is only one opening. The geometry where those two merge into one can look like a saddle. And this saddle will have a locally flat zone.

*This* is the type of thing you are referring to.

And here, Dave, is what I see to be another case of unclear communication.
Let's be perfectly clear that if any life were to evolve in such conditions, those life forms would be deep within a gravity well. Yes, a flat part of it. But still a well.

~ CT







From David Spain:
On 12/10/2016 6:26 PM, wrote:
If nature abhors a vacuum, why then is space pretty much a vacuum?Just got
thinking about it last night.

That's an old saying based on early experiments having to do with
entropy. Usually as applied when a vacuum chamber is exposed to a
pressurized chamber. As Jeff points out there is far more vacuum than
"non-empty" space-time, ie non-gravity well space-time. Thus it's fair
to say space-time or our Universe, *is* for any reasonable definition of
"is", a vacuum*.

However, there is some truth to it beyond the conventional wisdom, but
only in the quantum extreme. I suggest you Google the term "Zero Point
Energy" if you are not already familiar with that phrase.

Here's a reasonable starting point:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-point_energy

Also lookup the phrase "Casimir Effect" for further mind distortion. ;-)

Dave

*Speaking of gravity wells, for those fortunate enough to live in the
proximity of the center of a dense star cluster where spherical gaseous
formations are dense enough and hot enough but not too radioactive to
provide a livable atmosphere even for rocky bodies that are not
typically dense enough to hold their own atmosphere, the inhabitants of
such bodies might start out with a very different view of space-time,
until they developed telescopic techniques that would demonstrate
otherwise! What a shocker!