Is Gravity Real? A Scientist Takes On Newton

[dtotire]

Is Gravity Real? A Scientist Takes On Newton

By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: July 12, 2010



It’s hard to imagine a more fundamental and ubiquitous aspect of life on the Earth than gravity, from the moment you first took a step and fell on your diapered bottom to the slow terminal sagging of flesh and dreams.

But what if it’s all an illusion, a sort of cosmic frill, or a side effect of something else going on at deeper levels of reality?

So says Erik Verlinde, 48, a respected string theorist and professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam, whose contention that gravity is indeed an illusion has caused a continuing ruckus among physicists, or at least among those who profess to understand it. Reversing the logic of 300 years of science, he argued in a recent paper, titled “On the Origin of Gravity and the Laws of Newton,” that gravity is a consequence of the venerable laws of thermodynamics, which describe the behavior of heat and gases.

“For me gravity doesn’t exist,” said Dr. Verlinde, who was recently in the United States to explain himself. Not that he can’t fall down, but Dr. Verlinde is among a number of physicists who say that science has been looking at gravity the wrong way and that there is something more basic, from which gravity “emerges,” the way stock markets emerge from the collective behavior of individual investors or that elasticity emerges from the mechanics of atoms.

Looking at gravity from this angle, they say, could shed light on some of the vexing cosmic issues of the day, like the dark energy, a kind of anti-gravity that seems to be speeding up the expansion of the universe, or the dark matter that is supposedly needed to hold galaxies together.



more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/science/13gravity.html?hp

[Taitertots]

1. The Newtonian equations for gravity are incorrect

F= G* (M1*M2)/Rsquared
Is correct enough that it doesn't matter 99.999% of the times humans need to use it.

If you want to get the actual results you need to use Tensor Calculus. Which I'm not even going to begin to try and explain due to its complication and my lack of understanding.

[FirstTimeVoterAt37]

17. Somebody had to post it

[Taitertots]

19. Well it always just seemed obvious to me

Nothing is a point mass. It just seemed obvious that gravitation would be the sum of the individual gravitational contribution of each atom on all the other atoms. Any model of gravitation must depend on this, regardless of the mathematical complexity.

[damntexdem]

2. Heavy! And massive!

Let's all lift ein stein to Verlinde!

[BrklynLiberal]

3. It is only a theory. Both sides of the question should be taught!!!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
:popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. the ups and downs of your comment are attractive.

[valerief]

5. Badda bing!!!! Duzy! nt

[Deep13]

6. I believe in Intelligent Falling...

...and I insist that you respect my beliefs!

[laconicsax]

7. Teach the Controversy!

[femrap]

11. Yes, why do you

think so many are running around with a ball and chain around their ankles? To keep them from flying free. There is no gravity. God said it. I believe it. That settles it.:P ;-)

[sofa king]

26. I've long advocated conservative gravity-testing.

You could easily prove evolution false by jumping off a bridge and failing to fall.

Do it!

[luxoid]

8. holographic theory

This is the highly theoretical holograph theory in which the entire contents of the universe are encoded on its boundary,the consequence is you aint real either,you are coded information on the boundary of the universe.It is a theory of quantum gravity - maybe it is correct maybe it isn't,but the point is there is still hunger in your belly.....just get on with your life!

[laconicsax]

9. There's a funny line in this article:

"We’ve known for a long time gravity doesn’t exist," Dr. Verlinde said, "It’s time to yell it."

I know it probably the purpose of the article to make this guy sound like a loon, but they're doing a pretty good job.

[freebrew]

10. Always reliable, gravity by any other name...

"If you push something hard enough, it will fall over." - Fud's first law

[valerief]

12. I prefer levity to gravity anyway. nt

[starroute]

13. Dylan said it first -- as usual

When you're lost in the rain in Juarez and it's Easter time too
When your gravity fails you and negativity don't pull you through
Don't you put on any airs when you're lost on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there, they'll really make a mess out of you

[WheelWalker]

14. +1 !

[krispos42]

15. "Univ. of Amsterdam physics professor hit,killed by car"

The academic world mourned the loss of Professor Erik Verlinde, 48, a noted theoretical physicist at the University of Amsterdam. Professor Verlinde was most famous for his recent earth-shattering discovery that gravity was not real.

The professor was killed hours after his most recent discovery that black really is white. He was struck by a Ford Prefect in a traffic crossing while on the way to the bus station.

Fellow professor Authur Dent expressed remorse, saying "The news struck me like a bulldozer, a bright yellow bulldozer."

Compiled from wire services reports

[formercia]

16. My Cat is a serious student of Gravity.

She loves to push objects off the edge and study the effects as they land. She doesn't understand Mathematics but does know that objects fall down, not up.

[David Zephyr]

18. Gravity doesn't seem "real" in our 4 dimensional universe.

It just doesn't. Still, I think gravity exists.

Some have long speculated that gravity "leaks" into our little 4 dimensional universe.

I don't know. But gravity does seem to an odd card in our deck.

[caraher]

20. Read his article on arXiv

It's actually pretty accessible - light on the math. In a way, more interesting to me is the derivation of Newton's Second Law of Motion.

[Jim__]

21. I get "address is invalid" when I try your link. - n/t

[lazarus]

22. here's the pdf

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1001/1001.0785v1.pdf

[Jim__]

23. Thanks. - n/t

[caraher]

25. Still works for me...

Thanks for the alternate source, Lazarus!

[Swede]

24. This idea may just float.

:shrug:

[didact]

27. “..if a special geometry has to be invented in order to account for a falling apple...

...even Newton might be appalled at the complications which would ensue when really difficult problems are tackled.” — Sir Oliver Lodge, FRS, 1921.

Electromagnetic waves are far too slow to be the only means of signalling in an immense universe. Gravity requires the near-instantaneous character of the electric force to form stable systems like our solar system and spiral galaxies. Gravitationally, the Earth ‘sees’ the Sun where it is this instant, not where it was more than 8 minutes ago. Newton’s famous law of gravity does not refer to time.

http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=89xdcmfs

[mike r]

28. Faith-based string theory ran out of gas, so now they're flocking to entropy:

http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/?p=2650

While much of physics in the last century was dominated by a highly successful program to identify fundamental degrees of freedom of nature and understand their dynamics using increasingly deep and sophisticated mathematical formalisms, now the trend appears to be very different. Many of the most well-known theorists are pursuing research programs with the remarkable features that:
- You don’t need to have any idea what the fundamental degrees of freedom are.
- You don’t need any fundamental dynamical laws either.
- You can do everything with high school mathematics...

[txlibdem]

29. Look at the history of the airplane

Lots of trial and error till someone finally made a flying machine. Look at the old film reels and may just have to stop yourself from laughing at the goofiest of the failed attempts. Then scientists finally figured out what actually makes airplanes fly and suddenly we're flying all over the place, advances followed one another at breakneck speed.

We don't have that luxury when it comes to overcoming (or countering) the forces of gravity, unfortunately; there will be no wright brothers stumbling onto anti-gravity. We're going to need the scientists to make the breakthrough in understanding exactly what causes what we call gravity before they can learn how to counter its effects. I'm all for that.

When I was young they told me we'd all have flying cars by now. I want my flying car.