How Fast Is Gravity?

[Jabberwocky 46]

Have you been working on that world domination plan again:suspect:

 

The lopped off heads in the Dalek shells...? Im still looking for applicants but the wimps wont volunteer!

[HeadingNorth 11]

But you can directly measure it if you are there...

 

If you drop something, that is a direct measurement of the force of gravity, no different to looking at a thermometer to see the temperature.

 

I think what Karis is getting at is that although we can measure the forces created by gravity, we can't actually measure whatever it is that causes gravity. We can't count how many gravitons exist in a given situation, because we can't detect even one of them in any situation.

[Karis 11]

I think what Karis is getting at is that although we can measure the forces created by gravity, we can't actually measure whatever it is that causes gravity. We can't count how many gravitons exist in a given situation, because we can't detect even one of them in any situation.

 

Correct

 

I do love the word 'graviton'

 

That is correct (assuming the current hypotheses are correct.)

 

Similarly, if the Sun were to spontaneously vanish, it would be about eight and a half minutes before we saw it disappear, and we would be freed of its gravitational pull at precisely the same time.

 

That's fine if you're talking about light, but, sadly, gravity doesn't in any way bear any relation to photons. It might be some semblance to a wave form, but that's still to be determined.

 

All we can do is observe the effects of gravity.

[HeadingNorth 11]

Sorry but this just isn't in ANY WAY correct.

 

It is what the majority of scientists currently assume to be true, in the absence of better hypotheses.

[Jabberwocky 46]

What does light have to do with anything?

 

You've been watching too much Star Trek

 

Light as far as we`re aware is the fastest its possible to travel. May be different on star trek though, I dont watch science fiction, real science is more interesting.

[Forumosaurus 10]

Speed of light.

 

If the sun instantly disappeared right this second, it would take 8 minutes for the disruption in space-time to level and thus us to fly off into space.

[Jabberwocky 46]

Hang on... "Graviton"? Is that a unit of gravity...?

[Karis 11]

It is what the majority of scientists currently assume to be true, in the absence of better hypotheses.

 

Sorry, there's simply not enough evidence to support this and I've never heard any physicist compare gravity to light.

[NorthernStar 11]

Remembering an experiment at all those years ago where my physics teacher put a feather and a stone into a glass container, he sucked out all the air to create a vacuum he showed that the stone and the feather fell at the same speed.

 

On earth the speed of a falling object is terminal velocity, the speed is determined by the drag or air resistance.

 

Black holes and stuff causes me to glaze over and stare at the sky in wonderment.

[HeadingNorth 11]

Sorry, there's simply not enough evidence to support this and I've never heard any physicist compare gravity to light.

 

You haven't heard me do so either. Gravitons are not photons, and bear no resemblance to them, except that being massless particles both travel at the same speed.

 

It would, then, be equally accurate to say that light travels at the speed of gravity. (Again, assuming that current hypotheses are correct.)

[Jabberwocky 46]

Sorry about that the thread title misled me into thinking you wanted facts or information rather than speculation., my bad.

 

See? Isnt this more interesting than simply going to google?

[Karis 11]

So if gtravity was suddenly applied somewhere, it would be felt immediately elsewhere.

 

This is absolutely correct.

 

However, I'll still say it's possible that it is some kind of particle / waveform and it could absolutely travel at the speed of light, or observe some other as yet unknown phenomena.

 

I think we'll discover the truth in another 100 years or so