My conspiracy theorist detector is going off...
How does gravity work?
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Jun 15, 2023
0
#24
Elroch wrote:
ValentinoE3 wrote:
Elroch, you bring up a good point, that quantum mechanics haven't been experimented with nearly as much as gravity.
I didn't actually! It's quantum gravity that is untested, while quantum mechanics is the most tested theory of physics. There is a vast amount of data because it predominantly deals with small things at fast time scales.
Oh, I see where I misunderstood.
For example, one of the most precisely measured and predicted quantities in physics is the magnetic moment of the electron. The prediction involves quantum field theory, the version of quantum theory for people for whom ordinary quantum mechanics is too easy.
But the info we do know about quantum mechanics poses a lot of problems to Einstein's theory. His theory of General Relativity assumes events to be direct causes of an effect. Research on quantum mechanics has shown that many interactions create probabilistic effects.
It is true that when you get down to subtle combinations you can see that a classical theory of gravity and a quantum theory of everything else does not compute! But because gravity is only detectible when you have a large amount of something, the discrepancies are not detectable. For example, if you have a tonne weight, it might be in a superposition of quantum states but it looks exactly as if it is in one state. So it is a matter of "if we could detect the gravitational field from a bunch of a housand atoms, a classical theory could not deal with a double slit experiment using this bunch" or that sort of thing.
That makes sense
But I agree that quantum mechanics begin to stray from the definition of science,
It doesn't. Not at all.
especially when discussions of dark matter and dark energy begin, as these theories are nonfalsifiable.
Both of those theories are falsifiable, and they are no more part of quantum mechanics that general relativity is. (We merely guess dark matter is something like the stuff we know so obeys similar laws, with no empirical data. Dark energy is an extension of the classical theory of general relativity, so not quantum at all. It merely could be with a future theory of gravity).
Well, science relies on both observation and experimentation. Since we're unable to experiment on dark matter to detect it, though we know it exists, theories on it can't really be scientific, right?
Jun 15, 2023
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#25
Dark matter is a hypothesis to explain observed motion and distributions of matter. It has the properties that it is invisible matter than interacts gravitationally in the normal way but is distributed differently. This is a proper scientific hypothesis explaining observations and tested using the scientific method. That is so despite the fact that it is not a complete description by normal standards (i.e. it says nothing about what particles etc. make up dark matter).
The apparent distribution of dark matter implies it can only interact very weakly through any mechanism but gravity. (But I think the fact that it clumps with galaxies also shows that it does not have NO non-gravitational interaction. I am not 100% sure of this).
Everything else about dark matter is speculative - i.e. the evidence doesn't make anything else clear. Except that some guessed possibilities are not true - there are failed detections of various possibilities.
Jun 15, 2023
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#26
CaracticusPotts wrote:
…and I got fed up with your obsession with global warming..
No, you didn't. I had to kick you out. And there is no such thing as obsession with global warming: it is appropriate to treat it as important. Polls confirm even most of the population agrees, never mind those who have relevant expertise.
CaracticusPotts wrote:
You are typical of the nutters who dedicate their whole life to telling us : ‘ The end of the world is nigh.’Your ancestors used to do it with a sandwich board along city streets, you have just taken it to a more sophisticated level..Away and get drunk, and enjoy what time you have left on this doomed planet.🤣
You know, people can be more than just cows chewing their cud waiting for slaughter.
Jun 15, 2023
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#28
CaracticusPotts wrote:
Please expand on those bon mots.🤣
Then you can accuse him of being obsessed with saving humanity.
Jun 15, 2023
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#30
DiogenesDue wrote:
CaracticusPotts wrote:
You are typical of the nutters who dedicate their whole life to telling us : ‘ The end of the world is nigh.’Your ancestors used to do it with a sandwich board along city streets, you have just taken it to a more sophisticated level..Away and get drunk, and enjoy what time you have left on this doomed planet.🤣
You know, people can be more than just cows chewing their cud waiting for slaughter.
By comparison with Caracticus, cows provide milk and meat to compensate for their greenhouse emissions.
Jun 15, 2023
0
#31
Wait I learned that it was the core of the earth that made gravity. But gravity is just a mere force of attraction to center the earth. Perhaps was I just lied to?
lolmastrr102 wrote:
Wait I learned that it was the core of the earth that made gravity. But gravity is just a mere force of attraction to center the earth. Perhaps was I just lied to?
I doubt you "learned" that (unless your parents taught you?), rather just assumed it. Gravity is not like a magnet or something, so you don't need a special core or some kind of magic energy, you just need any matter in proximity to each other, which will then be drawn together. The sun exerts its gravity on the solar system, and the tiniest asteroid exerts its gravity on the sun. Your body exerts gravity on the earth, etc.
If you were to materialize a penny from nothing, for example, it will fall towards the earth, but the earth would also "falls towards" the penny an infinitesimal distance.
Jun 15, 2023
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#34
lolmastrr you weren't completely lied to, but gravity is really the attraction of matter to other matter. For example, the Sun exerts gravity on the Earth, we exert gravity on the moon, and technically, I'm exerting gravity on my computer right now, as we both have matter. The root causes of this attraction are still being sought out by physicists, but there are solid theories, the leading one being Einstein's theory of general relativity.
ninjahudson wrote:
Bro skipped first grade
I skipped 2nd grade
Jun 16, 2023
0
#37
As noted by the Great Natural Philosopher Homer the law of Gravity can be most simply stated as : the higher you go up the faster you come back down.🏹
To know how something works, there needs to be steps in between the effect and cause. In the case of gravity, there are no steps in between the thing taking effect; thus, we cannot know how gravity works, but we can describe the effects it has with mathematical equations.
There's a difference between acknowledgement and obsession.