Originally Posted By: Micah
 Originally Posted By: kcarlile
Micah, I'm afraid you're wrong about the gravity thing. We have several working theories, but magnetism isn't one of them.


Magnetism might not be the word I'm looking for, this was the theory as they explained it to us at he Smithsonian Aerospace Museum program we attended. Basically what they were explaining was that atoms are attracted to eachother and the more atoms you combine together, the stronger the pull towards another group of atoms.

Of course that was 10 years ago, maybe the theories have changed since then? Lol


Heya Micah,
You may very well be right because nothing has been proven yet. Gravity is still very much a collection of theory from what I have read and viewed. Oddly, I have a brain that struggles with heavily advanced math, but is always intrigued with the more theoretical side of physics.

A couple of interesting side notes on it then we can get back to the regular thread (which is starting to give credit to Chaos Theory advocates, by the way. \:\) ) I once read a paper (OK skimmed it because the math was beyond me) that argued that gravity was a complete abnormality in the universe because if it followed the regular laws of physics in regards to magnetic and other theories of know electrical attraction, the ratio of gravity would astronomically larger than it is for a mass such as our planet and we would all be crushed by the force. In fact, it argued that gravity is the weakest force in the universe. Hard to imagine as I desperately try jumping in the air in an attempt to fly. (Stupid evolution, didn't give us wings.)

Of course, a counter theory is still just a theory, but it made for an interesting argument. I searched online for the article after hearing the argument on a TV documentary.

Another interesting theory is that matter 'bends' space around it. Thus creating a bowl effect but in all dimensional directions. Hard to understand unless you picture it in 2d. Picture a ball sitting on a sheet of clear plastic wrap . It's presence, bends the plastic downward and creates a crater effect. Now picture a smaller ball placed on the plastic, it would fall to the middle towards the bigger ball. The bigger ball might even move towards the smaller a bit, depending on the ratio in sizes. If you threw the smaller ball sideways on the plastic, it would start to circle and slowly drop, decaying orbit.

Of course, doesn't this assume gravity, rather than explain it? Maybe but then you have to picture it with the bend occurring in 3d in all directions simultaneously. Harder to visualize. The theory is that it this bend in space itself that changes the path of another object, thus creating gravity. It also took some reading to understand why it argued that a ball with more mass would create a bigger bend than than an equally sized ball with less mass. I'm still struggling with that one but that is where the math comes in, so I will take their word for it, at least as a theory.

Again, another "theory" out of several but an interesting one because we can visualize it without having to understand electromagnetism or without the aid of advanced mathematics.

String theory has it's own theory of gravity as well, but I don't think I have thought about that one enough yet to try and describe it.

There, not only have we derailed this thread but we have derailed the cosmos!!!!! Muuhuuhhahahahahaha



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