Gravity

[bhouncy]

How does mass create gravity?... I was just day dreaming and I ended up on the moon. So I know gravity is keeping me on the moon but how does it work?

[Coelho]

Nobody actually knows it... not even the physicists...

[Breukelen advocaat]

The Flat Earth Society has the correct answers:

The Flat Earth Society -- Home (http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm)

:rasta:

[Mr. Clandestine]

Agreed. It's all theory, which mostly stems from two trains of thought: Newtonian and Einsteinian. Newton's theory of gravitation has to do with a gravitational 'force' surrounding any body of mass, and the laws that falling objects seem to adhere to. Einstein's theory of general relativity states that gravity is subject to the curvature of time and space, not force, and that objects fall in the direction of a geodesic path. (A logical straight line determined by the curvature of space that any massive object follows during free-fall.)

Physics always confused the hell out of me, including all the theories and propositions that backed up the study of it. My favorite explanation to all these questions still stands strong: "It just does." :D

[bhouncy]

Nobody actually knows it... not even the physicists...

That is what I suspected. Thanks.

[bhouncy]

Agreed. It's all theory, which mostly stems from two trains of thought: Newtonian and Einsteinian. Newton's theory of gravitation has to do with a gravitational 'force' surrounding any body of mass, and the laws that falling objects seem to adhere to. Einstein's theory of general relativity states that gravity is subject to the curvature of time and space, not force, and that objects fall in the direction of a geodesic path. (A logical straight line determined by the curvature of space that any massive object follows during free-fall.)

Physics always confused the hell out of me, including all the theories and propositions that backed up the study of it. My favorite explanation to all these questions still stands strong: "It just does." :D

I know a little about the Einsteinian theory but only what I picked up on youtube so I'm still mostly in the dark on that one.

[Esoteric416]

have u ever put a bowling ball in the middle of a trampoline then rolled some other smaller balls around on the surface? If not give it a try. This is a simplified way of illustrating how gravity works reletive to an objects mass. The surface of the tramp is like the fabric of space/time being curved by the mass of the bowling ball the other balls fall toward it because it's mass is greater. Does this explain why gravity works the way it does? Sorry no. So i guess Coelho's answer was the most direct one.
Still give the bowling ball thing a try it's just fun. :D

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

There's been some recent theories that mass creates a condensed field of gravitons, and these are a sort of linking halfway-point between 9 of the 10 dimensions. The theory also postulates that this "dilution" between all dimensions, as opposed to other forces like electro magnetism which are in our realm, is why gravity is the weakest of the 4 universal forces.


Nothing to do with why mass creates gravity, I know, but I found it to be one of Brian Greene's more interesting tidbits (not that they aren't all interesting).

[FlyGuyOU]

Mass doesn't create gravity, i was watching the universe yesterday and they were talking about the largest stuff in the universe (which is 'parently the galactic web or somthing) anyways there is 'dark matter' which has gravity but no mass

strange

[pinkyslayer]

I've got a question for you intellectual bastards...if gravity holds us to the earth, and also gives us a sense of up and down, in a way, then why dont people in antarticta or other places below the equator experience a constant upside down sensation?

[Coelho]

if gravity holds us to the earth, and also gives us a sense of up and down, in a way, then why dont people in antarticta or other places below the equator experience a constant upside down sensation?

Exactly because it gives us the sense of up and down. For us, "down" is to where gravity attracts us to. So, the "down" is always towards the earth, no matter where we are at it.

Also, the north hemisphere only points upwards in the school maps. The earth is a sphere, and there is no absolute upwards or downwards in the space, so each point of the earth can be said to be pointing upwards, or downwards, or whatever, but its only matter of choice. The direction is relative, and depends only of the position of the observer.
For me, who am in the south hemisphere, im pointing upwards (cause the earth is below me) and everybody in the north hemisphere (most of you) are pointing downwards. So, its you who should be feeling upside down!

[rebgirl420]

I thought gravity was caused by the fact that the world is constantly spinning...

Like if you take a bucket with water and spin it around really fast nothing falls out of it.

[NaughtyDreadz]

I thought gravity was caused by the fact that the world is constantly spinning...

Like if you take a bucket with water and spin it around really fast nothing falls out of it.

That's centrifugal force....

Actually Gravity comes from another dimension... at least thats what quantum physics say... considering the other forces of nature, gravity is pretty week seeing how the entire earth is pulling on us... since we live in an 11 dimension universe, scientists say that gravity leaks in from another dimension... I believe its part of M theory, If I'm not mistaken...

this documentary should put a lil in perspective...

YouTube - Parallel Universes - BBC documentary - Part 1 (http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=2_vpEyE6rug)

[Iyaman]

to discuss things like this at this current point in time is almost pointless because we are verging on such incredible discoveries in quantum physics that it will be a long time before we really know whats going on. I just hope that they turn on the time machine before i die

[MadSativa]

have u ever put a bowling ball in the middle of a trampoline then rolled some other smaller balls around on the surface? If not give it a try. This is a simplified way of illustrating how gravity works reletive to an objects mass. The surface of the tramp is like the fabric of space/time being curved by the mass of the bowling ball the other balls fall toward it because it's mass is greater. Does this explain why gravity works the way it does? Sorry no. So i guess Coelho's answer was the most direct one.
Still give the bowling ball thing a try it's just fun. :D

hes right this can illistrate how gravity works as we belive (as far as we know, this can change) we and all that is belongs to a fabric of sorts, space and time some say, woven dimetions othes say, I say we are all in a kaotic dance with everything that is and that is not. Gravity is observed by the bowling ball on a tampoilin because it sits on the fabrice of space and time. its mass makes it sit low in the fabric and all that is lighter than the ball rolles too it unless it is far enough away and has enough of its own mass to keep its self away from the bowling ball.

An example is if 2 bowling balls sat at each end of the trampolin not moving at rest it is possible that they will never be attracted to eachother, however if you started to put say 2 baseballs in the middle of the trampolin eventulay they will start to roll towards a bowling ball (it is unknown at this point which bowling ball they will move towards because of placement or movement of the baseballs when place on the tampoline). If you keep adding baseballs to the middle they will start to roll toward the bowling ball with the most base balls around it. This is because the smaller balls are attracted to the heaiver mass ( the bowling ball with more baseballs around it). eventually after you keep adding Baseballs you will have one bowling ball with a large number of baseballs around it and a bowling ball with fewer baseballs around it. At this point the baseballs you keep adding to the middle of the tramploilne just travel to the bowling ball with the most baseballs around it, till eventually the trampolin is wieghted down to the point where the bowling ball on the otherside of the tramppolin is affect by the weight and is now attracted by the bowling ball with the most baseballs around it. At this time the Bowling ball at the other side begans its joyrney along with the few balls it has closer to the ball with the most baseballs and eventualy they will both start to move closer to eachother, with the heviest bowling ball moving the least and eventualy keeping and joining the other bowling ball with its balls.

At this point I am no longer high and have forgotten what the discution was about but gravity is not so elusive in fact it is very hard to miss.

[dragonrider]

For me, who am in the south hemisphere, im pointing upwards (cause the earth is below me) and everybody in the north hemisphere (most of you) are pointing downwards. So, its you who should be feeling upside down!

Oh my God, Coelho! You are in the southern hemisphere! Hang on and don't fall off the bottom of the Earth! I'll get a long rope and fling it over the edge so you can grab on!

[dragonrider]

hes right this can illistrate how gravity works as we belive (as far as we know, this can change) we and all that is belongs to a fabric of sorts, space and time some say, woven dimetions othes say, I say we are all in a kaotic dance with everything that is and that is not. Gravity is observed by the bowling ball on a tampoilin because it sits on the fabrice of space and time. its mass makes it sit low in the fabric and all that is lighter than the ball rolles too it unless it is far enough away and has enough of its own mass to keep its self away from the bowling ball.

An example is if 2 bowling balls sat at each end of the trampolin not moving at rest it is possible that they will never be attracted to eachother, however if you started to put say 2 baseballs in the middle of the trampolin eventulay they will start to roll towards a bowling ball (it is unknown at this point which bowling ball they will move towards because of placement or movement of the baseballs when place on the tampoline). If you keep adding baseballs to the middle they will start to roll toward the bowling ball with the most base balls around it. This is because the smaller balls are attracted to the heaiver mass ( the bowling ball with more baseballs around it). eventually after you keep adding Baseballs you will have one bowling ball with a large number of baseballs around it and a bowling ball with fewer baseballs around it. At this point the baseballs you keep adding to the middle of the tramploilne just travel to the bowling ball with the most baseballs around it, till eventually the trampolin is wieghted down to the point where the bowling ball on the otherside of the tramppolin is affect by the weight and is now attracted by the bowling ball with the most baseballs around it. At this time the Bowling ball at the other side begans its joyrney along with the few balls it has closer to the ball with the most baseballs and eventualy they will both start to move closer to eachother, with the heviest bowling ball moving the least and eventualy keeping and joining the other bowling ball with its balls.

Is this why I keep getting hit in the balls?