|
Post by Original Admin on Aug 20, 2011 17:00:56 GMT -5
All,
How fast does gravity travel?
I was thinking - lets say a large object (a star) suddenly and instantly appeared 10 light years from earth.
Would it take 10 years for earth to feel the effects of the gravity of the star (albiet VERY weak). If so - this means gravity travels at the speed of light.
If less, then it travels faster than light - not allowed.
Slower?
|
|
|
Post by mohs on Aug 20, 2011 17:07:08 GMT -5
That's a really good question Mark! as I age~ i'll tellya it moves pretty darn fast !but if gravity is faster than light wouldn't everything go dark ? I'm not done with thread give me time I'm slow
|
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,466
|
Post by Sabre52 on Aug 20, 2011 17:12:36 GMT -5
Hmmm, not an expert but I believe gravity just is. I don't think it travels at all but rather is a force one object exerts on another, an attractive force. I believe the greater the mass of an object and the closer an object, the stronger the gravitational force exerted but it's been so long since I was in school, I may be wrong *L*. I do think planetary bodies have a zero magnetic effect so the forces involved are not as strong as say, magnetism. I'm not even sure an object ten light years away would have any real effect on Earth simply because gravitational fields are relative weak.....Mel
|
|
|
Post by Original Admin on Aug 20, 2011 17:18:55 GMT -5
Deeptime - I dont think everything would go dark - things only seem to go dark when gravity fields are so strong that the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light like in black holes.
I always assumed gravity was instant.
Its a daft thought to be having really - because gravity has always been around - so it never actually travels anywhere (I dont think!!??)
It just changes strength as objects come closer and move apart.
Hmmm - just now I had this thought though - which does give some credibilty to the question after all.
Say two planets collide and merge into 1 - there is now a massive difference in the strength of the force of the gravity of this new object. This is effectively an instant "new" force to be felt from afar.
Heres another thought - hey they are coming in thick and fast now LOL.
Lets say another planet collided with earth and merged. Would it take 8 minutes before the earth decided to start falling in towards the sun with its new mass (assuming no change in speed of orbit).
Kind of like when the wiley kyote finds himself realising hes been run off the cliff road by roadrunner - he hangs there for a few seconds before falling.
|
|
|
Post by Original Admin on Aug 20, 2011 17:21:17 GMT -5
Mel - sure - the force is massively weak at such a distance - but theres a "gravity wave detector" built in the states somewhere which can detect gravity "waves".
See my post above and see what you think about what happens if two bodies collide - thus increasing the mass of one object from two.
This kind of negates the "always there" aspect of the thought.
|
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,466
|
Post by Sabre52 on Aug 20, 2011 17:53:17 GMT -5
Dang Mark, I think I'm gonna have to have me some of what yore smoking before I can get that deeply into this topic *L* I do believe it's "always there". It would simply "be there" with an increased magnitude if you combined two objects to create an single object with a larger mass coefficient. I'm surely gonna have to go back to smoking or drinking to continue this train of thought though *L*.....Mel
|
|
|
Post by docone31 on Aug 20, 2011 18:02:22 GMT -5
The entire thing is that it is not really gravity. The earth sucks. Everything here goes back to here. We cannot hear it as we are too close to the source. Hey, how is the little one? Haven't heard hide nor tell on him in a bit. How be you and the Mrs?
|
|
|
Post by gr on Aug 20, 2011 18:07:46 GMT -5
Isn't gravity just the magnetic field of an object (magnet),or a planetary body?
|
|
|
Post by mohs on Aug 20, 2011 18:28:00 GMT -5
scientist haven't figured out how to account for gravity as mentioned earliar its a weak field compared to the micro world of atom quantums that what the cyclotron experiments are about trying to find the particle the gravity particle the God Particle as posited by guy named Boson HIGGS!!! i think ;D
but for now I think its spooky action at a distance :
|
|
|
Post by mohs on Aug 20, 2011 18:34:21 GMT -5
I don't think gravity as any magnetic appeal .... as I get older I appeal less & less to the opposite sex
|
|
|
Post by mohs on Aug 20, 2011 19:07:19 GMT -5
that's interesting Mark escape velocity now if something is trying to repeal an object and can’t then there a force am I to believe this force is static? how can something that’s dynamic (and I think we can agree that gravity is a dynamic force) and yet-- be static? Ed --just anybody forgot
|
|
|
Post by gr on Aug 20, 2011 19:24:48 GMT -5
I don't know but, How is gravity different than magnetism? The magnetic lines of flux go out from the earths core and return. Seems that, that would have a direct correlation to gravity.
|
|
|
Post by cpdad on Aug 20, 2011 20:05:08 GMT -5
yep...ya gotta be on drugs or a physicist to tackle this one ;D...kid started a science project on something similar last year....after 2 weeks...it went swiftly down hill....to complicated for me or him ...i dont do drugs...but i drink a lot ;D. some discussion here www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=164489
|
|
|
Post by gr on Aug 20, 2011 20:29:13 GMT -5
Whoa cp - that made my head hurt trying to keep up with that! But thanks for posting it. This is just a thought but, when you turn on an electrical device (motor) ; there is an instaneous magnetic field, thus, a gravational attraction to that device, however small! So, at that point, there is no travel of the gravational force. Like an apple sitting on a table - it's just there!
|
|
Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,466
|
Post by Sabre52 on Aug 20, 2011 20:49:58 GMT -5
OK, as I remember it, gravity results from a planet's mass, not it's magnetic field which results from it's charge. I believe I read the moon has no charge, therefore no magnetic field to speak of but it still has gravity due to it's mass *L* Or some such magical science crap like that.....Mel
|
|
|
Post by mohs on Aug 20, 2011 21:09:03 GMT -5
sound exactly right Mel does an earth magnet work on the moon ? do all those north/south alinements get funky in zero gravity ? zero gravity- wow - that can't exist!
|
|
|
Post by mohs on Aug 20, 2011 21:20:05 GMT -5
yep...ya gotta be on drugs or a physicist to tackle this one ;D...kid started a science project on something similar last year....after 2 weeks...it went swiftly down hill....to complicated for me or him ...i dont do drugs...but i drink a lot ;D. some discussion here www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=164489your gravity experiment went downhill? ;D success!
|
|
|
Post by mohs on Aug 20, 2011 21:28:39 GMT -5
let me pontificate a little more space is warped/curved so everything is coming at each other that because matter bends space
like a trampoline with a bowling ball in the middle
But what causes everything from not colliding together ? that's the spooky question... I'll get an answer and be right back :2cents:
|
|
|
Post by cpdad on Aug 20, 2011 21:40:42 GMT -5
pontificate?....o.k. educate my redneck ass...i cant even google it. and make sense of the word ;D as it is related to this...oh i love to learn new words ;D..kev.
|
|
|
Post by mohs on Aug 20, 2011 21:58:46 GMT -5
pontificate = beer drinking & hell raising the opposite of gravity ;D
|
|