Gravitational Attraction

> [ohlman]: Given the facts as you have described them, and with purely theoretical measuring devices, is faster-than-light communication possible in your view? (IE the communicator on one planet would waggle some heavy objects about (right, left, left, right, right...) and the person on the other planet measuirng thier location via gravity (right, left...))??

Without question, the answer is an unqualified "yes". Moreover, a technical paper saying so has just been accepted by a mainstream journal for publication this fall. This requires replacing Einstein's special relativity (SR) with Lorentzian relativity (LR). But because the differences between the two models are "semantic" (read: interpretational) rather than mathematical, this major elimination of the light-speed limit is accomplished without much disruption to physics in geberal and relativity in particular, as we have come to know and love it.

In fact, the only difference of importance between the two theories is that LR retains an "aether"-like concept (not universal, but equated with the local gravity field), while SR treats all inertial frames as equivalent. This change wipes out the proof in SR that nothing can propagate or communicate faster than light in forward time. -|Tom|-

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Your basic idea is correct, but there is a sign difference. Gravitons push from outside masses instead of pulling from inside masses. But masses shadow one another from some gravitons, and this absence of expected gravitons between masses is what pushes them toward one another. So a graviton can also be thought of as a "negative mass" passing between bodies, even though it is really the absence of positive masses between the bodies that would otherwise bombard the bodies from all directions. Such negative masses, of course, would be more abundant near a black hole, and would therefore slightly *decrease* the weight of a man on a scale. -|Tom|-


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Oh. Wierd. Cool.

So it is similar to what happens when an airplane flies? IE that the lack of airpressure above the wing that lifts the plane?

So if I understand correctly I have gravitons bomparding me from all directions naturally... but there are fewer from under the floor because many of them are blocked by the planet?

So if I wanted anti-gravity I would but need to focus all of the gravitons for miles around on my body and up I go!

> [ohlman]: So if I understand correctly I have gravitons bomparding me from all directions naturally... but there are fewer from under the floor because many of them are blocked by the planet?

You do indeed understand correctly.

> [ohlman]: So if I wanted anti-gravity I would but need to focus all of the gravitons for miles around on my body and up I go!

Yes. But as a practical matter, building a graviton focusing device may not be possible for a while. Creating graviton shields made of super-dense matter would be easier to achieve. Then we could tap that energy by building a sail or a windmill of superdense matter to redirect the "graviton wind" now blowing steadily downward toward Earth (because Earth always blocks some gravitons trying to get through and balance the unblocked downward wind). -|Tom|-

A parting shot

Miriam/Websters online dictionary defines "infinite" as "endless" and "finished" as "to end".
Thus for the layman (or linguist) finished infinity is a contradiciton in terms.

> [olhman]: Miriam/Websters online dictionary defines "infinite" as "endless" and "finished" as "to end". Thus for the layman (or linguist) finished infinity is a contradiciton in terms.

Whether you recognize this as such or not, you are basically restating Zeno's paradox in linguistic terms.

For example, a line segment has an infinite number of points and yet a finite length. One can never reach the end of counting points, but one can reach the end of the segment. This is like Zeno's corollary that you can never cross a street, because you must first cross to the mid-point, then to the mid-point of the remaining portion, ad infinitum. Because there are an infinite number of "mid-points" always remaining, you can never reach the other side, so days the paradox.

The resolution is in the "one-to-one correspondence" that develops properties of the infinite. Both in mathematics and in physical reality, an infinite series can have a finite sum. (The classical example is: 1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + ... = 2. No matter how many terms you sum, you can only approach 2, but never exceed it.)

So the "infinite" part refers to the composition, and is endless. And the "finished" part refers to the sum, and has a finite end. If this is a contradiction, then you can never cross a street! -|Tom|-

No.

I am sure that you realize the...um... *infinite* difference between these two things.

In order for me to travel the finite time between now and tomorrow at this time I am not obligated (unless I am in the dentist chair or a boring class) to *count* the hours between them, nor the minutes, nor the seconds... let alone the micro-seconds, nano-seconds, pico-seconds, etc. and on and on ad infinitum and ad nauseum.

However, in order to get through an *endless* experience (such as a cricket match) I do really and truly have to wait, or read, or sleep, or eat... until the last catch is caught, the last ball hit, etc.

Zeno, with his diverting but experientially useless paradox, took something that is factually known (by those of us that accept the real world) as happening... a mile that *is* walked, a book that *is* read, a hot dog that *is* eaten... and made a fun, Alice in Wonderlandish, speculation about finishing each second, each partial page, each molecule eaten... divided... divided again... etc.

Confusing this amusing diversion of counterfactual logic with the plain, simple, and obvious facts of language and life is, perhaps, amusing... but not very helpful.

If the steps are truly endless, I will never reach the end of them. If you wait for the perfect wife, you will never get married. If you are going to sit around and wait for Bill Clinton to tell the truth about something... well I, personally, will be waiting for you at my cricket match. <yawn>