Gravity?

[Lancer]

I rose from the seat of ease the other day, and noticed how I no longer feel that I am winning the battle against gravity. Sure, I've put on some weight, perhaps 20 lbs over, but in my heart I know that it is my age that is telling.

Anyway, it got me thinking about gravity, that funny, unaccountable force.

As I looked down at the tile bathroom floor, towards the center of the earth itself, I considered... Where was the force eminating from that has begun to give me such a fight? Well, from everywhere in which there was anything according to science. The very tile itself was pulling at me...a little, and I at it, small consolation. In fact I am pulling at the earth, at the planets, at the sun and all the universe. I am pulling on everything, though the force is feeble, and the farther away the weaker it gets. Still, when you consider the amount of matter in the universe, to exert any pull at all on every bit of it must require a tremendous force, exerted over fantastic distances, yes?

My point is, how can my body, or that tile or any bit of matter continueously exert force without expending fuel of some kind? This whole galaxy is spinning because gravity is constantly pulling. If gravity were to run out of energy then the galaxy would fly apart. Yet even the smallest speck of sand never ever stops pulling for all eternity.

I mean, wtf?

[Az]

force is only exerted if there is a body which is away from the body that exerts gravitation. that's newton's explanation.

modern physics says that mass actually makes the time-space continuum around it curve so it is attracted to the center of gravity.


or am I wrong?

[Ramo]

The force does use a sort of "fuel." That fuel would be gravitational potential energy.

I am pulling on everything, though the force is feeble, and the farther away the weaker it gets.

Actually, say, the force between you and the earth is enormous. Only because the earth is so massive does it experience little acceleration from humans.

[Ecthy]

It's Lancer thread week again

I've got Europa Universalis now, quite the fun game

As for the topic - gravity works just like electric fields

For both you can use the very simple field model, the only difference would be there is no such thing as negative gravity. And both can only be explained with quantum physics if you want to do it properly. But I'm not there yet

[Dauphin]

My point is, how can my body, or that tile or any bit of matter continueously exert force without expending fuel of some kind?

"Fuel" is not expended when a force is exerted. Only if the object moves whilst experiencing a force* is "fuel" expended. Besides the universe is very good at conserveing energy, comets speed up and slow down all the time but "loss of gravity fuel" is not an issue.

*That is a force in the same direction as the motion

[Skanky Burns]

Originally posted by Ecthelion
...there is no such thing as negative gravity.

Never been proven.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns


Never been proven.

If negative gravity existed it could end up powering a perpetual motion machine. Thus it is rejected as a notion by many.

[Lung]

Consider this: If it wasn't for the electromagnetic force of your individual atoms, the gravitational force would pull you right through the tiles, baby!

Doesn't that make the mind boggle, eh?

[Ecthy]

quite a dumb logic.... if it wasn't for electromagnetic force, nothing around us would exist, how does that sound?

[Dauphin]

Better than the current hell we live in.

[Juggernaut]

I am pulling on everything, though the force is feeble, and the farther away the weaker it gets.

Actually, the further away you get from the center of the mass, the more the potential energy increases and the stronger the force. To a certain point, that is.

[Chowlett]

Originally posted by Juggernaut

Actually, the further away you get from the center of the mass, the more the potential energy increases and the stronger the force. To a certain point, that is.

That point would be the surface of the body under consideration. Above the surface, the force decreases. Sure the GPE increases, but what's that got to do with the price of bananas?

[Dauphin]

How do you figure that one out, or are you refering to Gaussian shapes?

[Chowlett]

SD - who does that refer to?

[chequita guevara]

Gravity sucks!