Posted on 09/10/2020 2:48:44 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Eric Adelberger, Jens Gundlach and Blayne Heckel won the 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics "for precision fundamental measurements that test our understanding of gravity, probe the nature of dark energy and establish limits on couplings to dark matter," Breakthrough Prize representatives announced today (Sept. 10).
The trio, leaders of the Eöt-Wash research group at the University of Washington in Seattle, has built equipment sensitive enough to measure gravity, the weakest of nature's four fundamental forces, at incredibly short distances. Such work has helped shape physicists' big-picture understanding of the universe.
For example, take the team's research into Isaac Newton's inverse square law, which stipulates that the gravitational force between two objects is proportional to the square of the distance between them. (If the distance between the objects is doubled, the gravitational attraction decreases by a factor of four.)
The inverse square law has survived every test to date. But physicists have been probing it at smaller and smaller scales, because a violation there could reveal "new physics" — the extra dimensions predicted by string theory, for instance.
Measurements by Adelberger, Gundlach, Heckel and their colleagues recently showed that the inverse square law holds even for objects separated by a mere 52 microns (0.002 inches), "establishing that any extra dimension must be curled up with a radius less than 1/3 the diameter of a human hair," Breakthrough Prize representatives wrote in today's award announcement.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
ping
I measure gravity with a bathroom scale. I detect it is getting a lot stronger.
Thank You for posting.
Don’t trust bathroom scales. They lie a lot...kinda like Hiden Biden.
Yeah... But which hair??
Well, I guess so if they can travel through time and back again so easily.
Now that’s funny.
“Well, I guess so if they can travel through time and back again so easily.”
Sometimes it is better to keep. one’s thoughts to themselves.
There is no gravity, the Earth sucks.
Must be a post-dated check. They can’t cash it until next years.
Years ago, there was a quasi engineering FR Thread take covered the width of various female hairs from around the World.
A blonde one, I mean, no, a red one?
ping
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