Gravity?

A guy was discussing his theory of "gravity" with me today.
He believes that it is not a force, but an effect. He believes
that what we interpret as gravity is really the effect of
sub-atomic particles on larger bodies. They exert force on
larger bodies. Those which bombard us without first passing
through a larger object like a planet, have a greater effect
on us than those which do first pass through a larger object.
The effect is that they push us onto the larger object. He
believes that is why some gravitational theories don't work
for sub-atomic particles. Is it a possibility?

On Mon, 26 Jul 2004 02:16:34 +0000, dh_ld wrote:

A guy was discussing his theory of "gravity" with me today.
He believes that it is not a force, but an effect. He believes
that what we interpret as gravity is really the effect of
sub-atomic particles on larger bodies. They exert force on
larger bodies. Those which bombard us without first passing
through a larger object like a planet, have a greater effect
on us than those which do first pass through a larger object.
The effect is that they push us onto the larger object. He
believes that is why some gravitational theories don't work
for sub-atomic particles. Is it a possibility?
Not proven afaik. The General Relativity Theory have more
proven points, read a bit on it.

Your friend is partially correct as Albert Einstein so described it in his
Theory of General Relativity. He stated that gravity was, in cause and in
effect, a warpage of the fabric of space and time caused by the
interposition of mass over the continuium. Does this relate to the
subatomic effects as your friend suggested? No one can be sure - but it is
an interesting supposition.

===================
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You find the answers he

http://www.wakkanet.fi/~fields/



"Maury Markowitz" kirjoitti viestissä
...
wrote:
A guy was discussing his theory of "gravity" with me today.
He believes that it is not a force, but an effect. He believes
that what we interpret as gravity is really the effect of
sub-atomic particles on larger bodies. They exert force on
larger bodies. Those which bombard us without first passing
through a larger object like a planet, have a greater effect
on us than those which do first pass through a larger object.
The effect is that they push us onto the larger object. He
believes that is why some gravitational theories don't work
for sub-atomic particles. Is it a possibility?

The "guy" is attempting to describe a very old theory of gravity,
generally known as "push gravity" or "gravitational shadowing". The
first attempt at it seems to be LeSage back in the 1800's, although most
of the "alternate energy" sites instead refer to a nobody named Wright
who re-published basically the same thing in the 1960's/70's and became
their cause celebre.

The basic idea is that gravity is all around us, but the Earth (or other
large bodies) shadow out some of it, so we feel a net force towards the
ground. Seems clever when you think about it.

Unless you _really_ think about it. Then you start seeing the obvious
problems.

For instance, if the particles are being absorbed by the Earth in order
to shadow us, why isn't the Earth heating up? In fact, if you just do
the math you'll find out the Earth would have to be a ball of molten
slag in order to stay in orbit.

Even if you choose to ignore this problem, as some have by introducing
mechanisms that Occam would laugh at, you also find that there would
have to be a traverse "drag" force that would slow down all orbits. This
certainly isn't the case, or we wouldn't be here to write this.

Read all about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeSage_%28gravity%29

Long and short: it was worth studying once, in the 1800s, and anyone who
brings it up now is reading the "alternative fringe" web sites.

Maury

wrote:
A guy was discussing his theory of "gravity" with me today.
He believes that it is not a force, but an effect. He believes
that what we interpret as gravity is really the effect of
sub-atomic particles on larger bodies. They exert force on
larger bodies. Those which bombard us without first passing
through a larger object like a planet, have a greater effect
on us than those which do first pass through a larger object.
The effect is that they push us onto the larger object. He
believes that is why some gravitational theories don't work
for sub-atomic particles. Is it a possibility?

No. This theory is a very very old one and can be readily disproven. If
this theory was so then why would a singularity from a black hole have
nearly infinite gravity even though it's only about the size of an
atom. In that case there's no surface area to cause the shadowing
effect. Gravity is often confused with being something correlated with
size, but that is not the case at all. It has nothing to do with size
and everything to do with mass. Gravity is the nature of all matter
period. In much the same way that a moving body wants to stay in
motion, why? Because that's just it's nature. Honestly I think that's
as far as science will be getting for quite awhile in a simplified
nutshell as far as gravity goes.