[Texaggie79]

I remember as a kid, I thought that NASA had anti-gravity rooms that astronauts trained in.

I think that it is imperative that we make some. There has GOT to be a way. I mean, gravity is ultimately magnetism, in technical terms, so... I think using magnets is a logical step to dealing with it.

[snowfox]

I mean, gravity is ultimately magnetism, in technical terms, so...

I don't mean to nitpick on you, but that is common misconception. Gravity is one of the four fundemental atomic forces, the others being the weak/strong nuclear force, and electromagnetism. The problem with anti-gravity is that if it is possible, then most of what we know about sub-atomic nuclear interaction is wrong. I am not a physicist, but I have read quite a bit on this, and if my understanding is correct, it is that gravity is a fundamental force, weak but omnipresent. The thing with gravity, unlike the other forces is that it can't be overcome or separated from, because it is everywhere, and everything exerts a little gravity. Some good reading on this specific subject is the revised edition of Stephen Hawkings' A Breif History Of Time. The added chapters specifically address gravity and black holes, which Proffessor Hawking was the first to theorize.

[Physicist]

I think that it is imperative that we make some. There has GOT to be a way.

I'm not sure why you say that. You can cancel out electromagnetic fields because electromagnetism is a vector force. There are positive and negative charges with which you can make dipoles. Gravity, on the other hand, is a tensor force. There are only positive charges and the mathematical structure of the field does not permit a non-zero dipole moment (which is what you need for antigravity).

I mean, gravity is ultimately magnetism, in technical terms, so...

Well, no, it's not.

[techcor]

I remember as a kid, I thought that NASA had anti-gravity rooms that astronauts trained in.

I remember that room! I think it was on "I Dream of Jeannie". Seriously though, scientists have levitated a really small frog using magnets but it doesn't cancel gravity it offsets it. Takes an enormous amount of power (like 7 megawatts or so for a frog). I think that if you could reverse it so that you could create an earth-like gravity on the moon, then you would have something that would really let mankind colonize the solor system. Hey, put me on your ping list. Actually, I think there should be a seperate forum for science. There seems to be enough interest.