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Scientists ponder the problem with gravity
Space COM ^ | October 18, 2004 | Robert Roy Britt

Posted on 10/18/2004 12:27:05 PM PDT by roaddog727

Imagine the weight of a nagging suspicion that what held your world together, a constant and consistent presence you had come to understand and rely on, wasn't what it seemed. That's how scientists feel when they ponder gravity these days.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: gravitas; gravity; physics; pioneeranomaly; science; scientists; solarsystem; space
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To: roaddog727

"George W. Bush is responsible for the miserable failure of gravity anomalies. When John Kerry is president, gravity will be increased only on the top 2% of taxpayers. Gravity will be normalized again and obesity will vanish"


21 posted on 10/18/2004 12:49:41 PM PDT by NewJerseyJoe (Rat mantra: "Facts are meaningless! You can use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!")
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To: roaddog727

Speaking of gravy, has anyone seen Michael Moore on TV lately?

Oh wait.....this post is about gravITy.

Never mind.


22 posted on 10/18/2004 12:50:01 PM PDT by add925 (MPV - America's Dirty Little Voting Secret)
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To: roaddog727
I've discovered an absence of gravitas:


23 posted on 10/18/2004 12:52:16 PM PDT by weegee (Ted Kennedy, your brother defined Vietnam antiwar protesters as traitors, giving aid to Ho Chi Mihn)
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To: Boundless
Suppose gravity is a "push" rather than a "pull", and mass blocks it rather than generates it.

Pull definitely has more conceptual problems than push. There's a third option: speed of light (SOL) gradients. It's a somewhat passive effect where light wavefronts curve towards regions of lower speed. Say the SOL depends on the density of "space", whatever that is. Light and other electromagnetic waves would be "attracted" to areas of greater density. With the right gradient, em waves could orbit around the more dense region.

24 posted on 10/18/2004 12:53:42 PM PDT by mikegi
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To: roaddog727

Because of a supposed error in the position of the Pioneer spacecraft of less than .03% (3/100 per cent), they would throw out a theory that accurately predicts ALL other gravitational behavior?

Has it crossed their minds that it might be a little tough to measure the location of something that's several billion miles away?


25 posted on 10/18/2004 12:55:16 PM PDT by Redbob
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To: MohawkDrums
Life gets more like science fiction every day.

Oh brother. I will keep my mouth shut. I will. I have been using the same tag line for months.

Gravity is not what it seems.

26 posted on 10/18/2004 12:57:38 PM PDT by lafroste (gravity is not a force, dangit)
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To: roaddog727

Bush did it.


27 posted on 10/18/2004 1:01:35 PM PDT by pabianice
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To: mikegi
Suppose gravity is a "push" rather than a "pull", and mass blocks it rather than generates it.

No No No No No.

Perhaps gravity is simply a happenstance, a side effect of another phenomenon. Not a "force", and certianly not a "fundamental force". Perhaps G is neither universal nor constant. Perhaps the explanation is actually pretty straightforward.

Perhaps I'll be derided as a looney tune again, even though those doing the deriding never bothered to ask me what I meant.

28 posted on 10/18/2004 1:05:05 PM PDT by lafroste (gravity is not a force, dangit)
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To: DrDavid
Or better yet, find a hyper-intelligent race of pan-dimensional beings and get them to design a computer to find out the ultimate answer to the question of Life, the Universe and Everything!

it's 42...

29 posted on 10/18/2004 1:05:28 PM PDT by Preech1 (Flush the Johns...vote Bush-Cheney in 2004!)
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To: Boundless
The way I understand it, gravity is not a force, but is supposed to be the result of the warping of space caused by mass. The best picture that I've seen of it is something like placing a bowling ball on a trampoline, then rolling marbles around it, and watch as they are pulled in...

Then again, I seem to remember reading something (an uncomfortable number of years ago) about "gravitons", that impart the force.

Heck, I don't know any more. I don't think anyone else does either :-)

30 posted on 10/18/2004 1:09:27 PM PDT by zeugma (Come to the Dark Side...... We have cookies!)
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To: roaddog727

The fools. Gravity isn't a problem, it is a necessity.


31 posted on 10/18/2004 1:10:08 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (What did Kerry know and when did he know it?)
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To: TASMANIANRED
Gravity isn't a problem, it is a necessity.

My favorite related saying is:

GRAVITY:
It's Not Just a Good Idea...
It's the LAW

32 posted on 10/18/2004 1:12:14 PM PDT by lafroste (gravity is not a force, dangit)
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To: kingattax
"ok, astrophysics and math students......what would Lizzie the Hut weigh on the moon ?"

You mean, "what would the moon weight on Lizzie".

33 posted on 10/18/2004 1:13:04 PM PDT by spunkets
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To: spunkets

LOL....perfect...i lobbed a softball hoping for a home run

nice swing !


34 posted on 10/18/2004 1:14:47 PM PDT by kingattax
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To: zeugma
something like placing a bowling ball on a trampoline, then rolling marbles around it, and watch as they are pulled in...

That's a fair analogy. But consider that the reason the analogy works is that another agent (real Gravity) is pulling normal to the surface of the trampoline. Is it fair to have an analogy of gravity that is dependant on gravity to work?

35 posted on 10/18/2004 1:15:10 PM PDT by lafroste (gravity is not a force, dangit)
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To: lafroste

I don't like to dwell on gravity for too long. It always brings me down.


36 posted on 10/18/2004 1:15:59 PM PDT by reagan_fanatic (President Kerry - - there, scared ya didn't I?)
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To: roaddog727

Has Edwards promised to repeal the law of gravity yet?


37 posted on 10/18/2004 1:17:15 PM PDT by Spok
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To: Boundless
Now, suppose it's neither.

Yep. It's neither.

38 posted on 10/18/2004 1:19:40 PM PDT by lafroste (gravity is not a force, dangit)
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To: fooman
I went to a talk recently where a Stanford Prof made a pretty good case for Planck length black holes being responsible for Dark Matter. It seems that if you plug quantum mechanics into Hawking's equations which show black holes below a certain size radiating away then holes around a planck length are stable. These thing have the mass of about a mole of protons so an individual one's gravitation effects are pretty subtle making them awefully difficult to detect.

regards,

39 posted on 10/18/2004 1:22:33 PM PDT by Mycroft Holmes (Fnord!)
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To: lafroste

I independent of Newton discovered Gravity.


This may seem like a bold claim but since I was only 5 years old and never heard of Sir Issac, I think I can firmly claim the right.

I was a tiny child. I secured a rope to a 5 gallon bucket and threw the rope over the top of the jungle gym. I was small enough to entirely sit in the bucket.

My improvised elevator was moved by arm power to the top of said jungle gym. My ascent was relatively slow compared the the speed of my descent.

I in my juvenile mind thought that since I went up slow that I would go down slow when I released the rope.

As I impacted I discovered gravity, the law of acceleration of a falling body and the law of the bloody nose in the same moment.

I completing my body of research in physics decided I did not want to further my studies in this area. I decided that the medical field and the repair of bloody noses suited me better.


40 posted on 10/18/2004 1:22:47 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (What did Kerry know and when did he know it?)
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