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RE: Is Gravity acting upwards or downwards?
August 4, 2015 at 8:59 am
This may be totally wrong and just confuse things further, but I'm throwing it out there anyway. Someone smarter than me can correct me if I'm wrong.
An object's gravitational field is less a function of matter and more a function of space-time. Objects with mass warp space-time just by being in it.
This "slants" ALL of space-time toward the object in such a way that other objects will be inclined to "roll" toward it. If all objects in the Universe suddenly lost their motion and momentum, they would immediately start rolling toward each other until everything kind of crashed in on itself somewhere in the middle.
There's an experiment on YouTube I saw a science class doing where they stretch out a piece of lycra and place various round objects on it to see the patterns they make as they roll. With the right combination of weights and objects, they could create complex orbit patterns where two marbles (for instance) would orbit each other closely while simultaneously orbiting a much larger object. It's a pretty cool demonstration of the principle I'm describing. Basically, gravity isn't exactly pushing or pulling one way or another. It's more like we're resting on a table where EVERY object on the table tilts the whole table in toward itself. Only we're not resting, we're hurtling outward at high speeds.
I have to stress that this is my limited, layman's understanding of how this happens. It probably makes no sense to anyone but me.
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RE: Is Gravity acting upwards or downwards?
August 4, 2015 at 9:49 am
(This post was last modified: August 4, 2015 at 9:59 am by Alex K.)
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
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RE: Is Gravity acting upwards or downwards?
August 4, 2015 at 11:18 am
Yeah, that's the one. It makes a good visual demonstration, but you're absolutely right about it being an incomplete model. I just like how neatly it demonstrates the general idea of gravitational fields.
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RE: Is Gravity acting upwards or downwards?
August 4, 2015 at 7:45 pm
(August 3, 2015 at 1:46 am)Alex K Wrote: (August 2, 2015 at 9:02 pm)IATIA Wrote: Actually, if one considers the gravitational pull of the cannon ball and the bullet, the cannon ball must fall faster, albeit a negligible difference in that experiment.
Although not if you drop them next to each other, at the same time from the same height 
Vectors.  I think there should still be a difference, albeit even more negligible. Even if only 10E-1000, it is still different.
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God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
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RE: Is Gravity acting upwards or downwards?
August 4, 2015 at 8:03 pm
(This post was last modified: August 4, 2015 at 8:08 pm by IATIA.)
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
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RE: Is Gravity acting upwards or downwards?
August 4, 2015 at 8:09 pm
(August 1, 2015 at 7:05 am)Alex K Wrote: Just a second, let me clarify everything for you with my superior physics:
Bla bla geodesics bla bla bla spacetime bla
Can I have your babies?
No, I don't really want anymore babies, and you have one of your own to diaper and I sure don't want to diaper any new ones.
But you make me laugh like no one else here.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
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RE: Is Gravity acting upwards or downwards?
August 4, 2015 at 9:16 pm
(August 3, 2015 at 12:22 pm)Aristocatt Wrote: I don't really understand how you came to the conclusion you came to.
A push is an action in which the body causing the pushing moves the object it is pushing away from it.
A pull is an action in which the body causing the pulling moves the object toward it.
Neither of those definitions has anything to do with acceleration, or with anything but the object causing the action and the object being acted on. That is, the comparison itself of how object A interacts with the earth to how object B interacts with the earth, tells us nothing about the nature of the force being applied to it. Only the description of the interaction between object A and the earth tells us the nature of the force being applied to object A from the Earth.
Wait, are you saying that physical relationships are relative?
Perish the thought!
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RE: Is Gravity acting upwards or downwards?
August 4, 2015 at 9:59 pm
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: Is Gravity acting upwards or downwards?
August 4, 2015 at 10:36 pm
(August 4, 2015 at 8:09 pm)Jenny A Wrote: (August 1, 2015 at 7:05 am)Alex K Wrote: Just a second, let me clarify everything for you with my superior physics:
Bla bla geodesics bla bla bla spacetime bla
Can I have your babies?
No, I don't really want anymore babies, and you have one of your own to diaper and I sure don't want to diaper any new ones.
But you make me laugh like no one else here.
Go Alex,Go Alex,
He is witty,
he is gritty,
and he is from,
lord knows what city,
let me give you some news,
he got all the right physics,
so fucking smart he's
solving physics at night times.
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RE: Is Gravity acting upwards or downwards?
August 4, 2015 at 10:43 pm
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