Text Box: Ever since Isaac Newton watched an apple fall to the ground, scientists have taken gravity for granted. Until, that is, they tried to measure its strength with high-tech precision. Their results were so incredibly far off as to be newsworthy. Last April, at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Washington, D.C., representatives of three independent laboratories announced new high-precision measurements of the strength of the force of gravity. To the astonishment of the audience, the three measurements disagreed with one another by considerable amounts, and worse, none of them matched the value that physicists have accepted as correct for more than a decade. No one could offer so much as a hint to explain the discrepancies. ... Big G, Hans Christian von Baeyer, Discover, March 1996, pp 96-101
Text Box: The Most Ubiquitous Force in Nature An atom is at rest in space. A photon strikes the atom. There is a spontaneous exchange of momentum. And the whole atom – including the massive nucleus – moves. Momentum transfer from even a radiowave or a microwave photon thus takes place from atomic level to atomic level to physically affect also the mighty nucleus. Photons pack momentum. Though the photon itself does not penetrate to all levels of the atom, its momentum, nonetheless, does – and goes even to the cores of stars and planets without exception. Earth's magnetosphere, for instance, extends to several Earth diameters above us. The solar wind particles get deflected by this great bubble, which action gives it its comet-like shape with a tail extending to several million kilometers away from the Sun. The magnetosphere thus deflects an enormous amount of momentum every single second. What about all that momentum transferred down to the Earth core as a result? Yes, we shall take that up on the page here on – Anti-Gravity (link below). Here, however, we shall draw our attention primarily to the equally ill-understood phenomenon that is – Gravity. The Cosmic Background Radiation and Quantum Gravity It may now seem hard to accept the simple fact that shielding of the long-range cosmic radiation pushes bodies together to cause the gravitational effect. Our current concept of the phenomenon, on the other hand, is virtually unquestioned; a concept that some exotic energy, constantly emanating from the bodies themselves with some mystical tendrils to grab and pull or warp and bend even space and time, produces the effect. We have been weaned on the latter from early years and, therefore, easy to accept without question. But science stands still without inquiry. The utter simplicity of the final concept, on the other hand, once known to the larger science community, should make it even harder to ignore for the true advancement of science.
Text Box: Newton's theory of gravitation was a landmark in science but might easily have fallen foul of modern referees demanding explanations. ... The idea of action at a distance could only be a kind of magic. Forces were transmitted from one object to another only on contact. So what would have happened if, in due course, the Royal Society had sent the manuscript of the Principia out to referees in the modern manner? The chances are that the exercise would have recruited a good many quizzical referees' reports. Anybody can write the dialogue; "by what means, pray, does the author fancy that this magic can be contrived over the great distance between the Sun and Jupiter and without the lapse of time?" ... Is the Principia publishable now? John Maddox, Editor, Nature 376, 385 (3 August 1995)
Text Box: As Einstein said of general relativity, 'The chief attraction of the theory lies in its logical completeness. If a single one of the conclusions drawn from it proves wrong, it must be given up; to modify it without destroying the whole structure seems to be impossible.' Steven Weinberg, Dreams of a Final Theory, Vintage, UK, 1993; pp 107-108
          Go to Part 2 of 4
THE UNIFICATION OF PHYSICS ILLUSTRATIONS
A Synopsis The Cosmos The Spin
ADDENDA The Cosmological Redshift The Neutrino
Two-Slit Tests The Galaxy Nuclear Reactions
NASA Tests Gravity The Sun
KamLAND Test Anti-Gravity The Pulsar
UCLA Test Relativity Superconductivity
Q and A Mass-Energy Fusion Energy
 Eugene Sittampalam
 19 January 2008