GRAVITY - AN ALTERNATIVE THEORY
Copyright © James Copple 1999
INTRODUCTION
1. This document sets out to explain the following:
For some more facts about contraditions
and anomalies in the world of physics, check out
http://directory.google.com/Top/Science/Physics/Alternative/Gravitation/
For a range of more orthodox (but incorrect)
versions of what gravity is, visit Schoolsnet
and search for gravity.
WHAT GRAVITY IS NOT
2. It has long been believed that acceleration due to gravity is caused by an attarctive force generated by matter. There has been no explanation as to the nature of this force, only mathematical models that fit with (to a greater or lesser extent) the observations we have made of the universe. For example, the force appears to travel at infinite speed. This property of gravity, along with many others, has never been explained until now. The more detailed and accurate the observations of our universe become, the more limiting and inaccurate our mathematical models have become. This theory will enable old models to be fully understood, and new and accurate models to be created. Before explaining what gravity is, it is first necessary to explain that it is not a force generated by matter.
3. The weight of a body on the surface of a heavenly body is the reaction force caused by the acceleration of the surface of the heavenly body away from its centre.
4. Gravity is therefore nothing but the result of the general expansion of the universe. We are not aware of that expansion because the rulers we currently measure the universe with are expanding as well. Gravity is not, in itself, a force, but merely a consequence of universal expansion. Universal expansion is not a new idea. We know that the universe began as a very small object that has expanded to its current size. We also know that it is continuing to expand. In fact, it has been recently proven, by observations of supernovae, that the universe is in fact expanding at an accelerating rate. The root of this theory is that universal expansion is occuring at an infinitesimal level. Not only are galaxys moving apart, but stars, planets, atoms, the most fundamental particles, and the spaces between them are continuously expanding, which is what is 'pushing' the universe apart. No mass is being created in this expansion, and no changes in density of that mass are occuring.
5. One of the hardest things to grasp is the idea that objects in the universe are simply freefalling through space and yet appear to be revolving as part of the cosmological whirlpool that we see through telescopes and imagine in our view of the solar system. After all if an object is just moving unaccellerated through space, then how can it appear to move in a curve? The answer to this apparent problem lies in the fact that if you yourself are accellerating, then an object moving in a straight line will appear to you to be moving in a curve. Picture the following analogy: You are on the ground floor in a glass elevator. You have etched graph paper onto the glass wall of the elevator. You can see a car through the glass moving along the x-axis of your graph paper. It is moving in a straight line. At a particular time, your elevator begins to rise up at an accellerating rate. You plot the apparent path of the car on your graph-etched glas wall. It will describe a curved path downwards, yet it is still moving in a straight line.
6. The same phenomenon apples in the case of orbits. Imagine you are standing on the surface of the Earth. Directly above you you see a satellite pass overhead. Remember - it is moving in a straight line. But you are standing on the surface of an expanding planet. As you rise up, the satellite appears to descend towards the horizon. Eventually it dissappears below the horizon...
7. Your friend is one quarter of the way round the world from you in the direction of travel of the satellite. As it dissappears from your view, it appears over his head. Remember - it is moving in a straight line. But he is standing on the surface of an expanding planet. As he rises up, the satellite appears to descend towards the horizon. Eventually it dissappears below the horizon...
8. The important point is that every heavenly body is obeying Newton's first law. It is simply carrying on through space, unaffected by the presence of other heavenly bodies. The paths of the bodies seem curved because of the expansion.
9. The other very important element of this theory is that time is relative. Exactly as Albert Einstein has explained, the passage of time is not constant throughout the universe but varies according to two factors: the density of mass at a place and the speed that a point is moving at. This variation in time combined with the expansion of the universe is sufficient to explain every phenomenon yet seen in the universe.
SUMMARY
10. It is worth mentioning at this point that Einstein himself was not keen on the idea of gravity, but he would have been worried about trying to describe a universe without gravity for fear of not being believed. How long will it be before mainstream science realises that gravity is an invention like the 'ether' that used to exist in the universe, or the Earth being at the centre of the universe, or the earth being flat? Not too long hopefully. In the mean time, the idea of gravity is still causing problems for physicists. Most recently, a 'map' has been created showing the position of 'dark matter' in the universe using observations from the Hubble telescope. Apparently this dark matter is invisible, transparent, and nobody knows what it's made of; but because of gravity, it must be there, or else there's no explanation for the motion of the heavenly bodies of the galaxy. When they realise that there is no gravity and it's all caused by expansion, they'll be able to forget about compensating inventions like dark matter.