mikey23 Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 (edited) According to Newtons Law of Gravitation F=G (m1m2)/d^2, where G is the universal gravitational constant m1 and m2 are the masses of the two objects and d is the distance between the two object, the gravitational force is shared equally between the two bodies. So the earth has the exact same gravitational attraction to you, as you do to it. We know what gravity is, but the question of why particles attract one another is still not understood. For those of you who can be bothered to try and understand it, have a look at string theory becasue today it is regarded as the most promising theory for a unified description of the fundamental particles and forces in nature including gravity.This is just stuff we learnt in physics last year, and I understand that particles attract each other, but when it comes to anything else, i have no idea!Other things that bother me about `gravity` is things like:Why don’t objects like the earth get pulled towards the sun, eventually getting closer and closer etc?Or why doesn’t the reverse happen, ie; the earth moves away from the pulling object due to the weight and force of the earth? Like taking a large weight and swinging it around yourself… the object wants to pull away.Think of it this way, you're swinging a ball on a string around you in circles, it wants to fly off at a tangent, but the tension in the string keeps it going in the same radius around your body. Now replace you with sun, the ball with the earth, and the string with gravity and there you go. When a sateltie orbits the earth, it is constantly falling towards the earth. A satellite does fall towards the Earth; only it never falls into the Earth. This only works becasue the earth is round; that is the Earth curves. Roughly, the Earth curves about 5 meters downward for every 8kms along its horizon. So, if you looked out along the horizon for 8kms, you would see that the Earth curves downwards below this straight-line path about 5m. In order for a satellite to successfully orbit the Earth, it must travel a horizontal distance of 8kms meters before falling 5m. So basically for something to orbit the earth it has to go at a certain speed to follow a circular orbit. If the speed is faster it will go in an eliptical orbit, or if it is faster still it will leave orbit altogether. You could apply this principle to the Earth or other planets orbiting around the sunAnyway, i think i've said enough Edited January 8, 2007 by mikey23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZeroMatt Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 What is gravity? / Why should/would a smaller object be attracted to another object with greater mass in the universe?Maybe you have seen the `theory` that the universe is like a giant cloth pulled tight? You place a large heavy object in the centre which creates a depression, and if you where to introduce a smaller object into this, it would roll/get pulled towards the centre, well yeah if you did that on earth, it would get pulled towards the centre because of this magical thing we call gravity. But how the f**k do you apply that to space with it's three different axis? It’s not a flat surface that this theory can be applied to, unless they know something regarding space there not telling us? It sounds really nice… the first time I saw this `theory` I was taken by it myself, but I later decided it was just a nice way of explaining it, with no real application to the real world. So f**k that!This "table cloth theory" isn't showing force acting upon any axis it is merely showing the exponential increase in gpe as you get closer to another mass. Which is based upon the inverse square law whereby forces of attraction are proportional to the masses of the objects and also proportional to the inverse square of the distance between them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
br3n Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 the reason objects such as planets dont get pulled towards the sun is that they are infact, constrantly falling but due to curvature they stay in orbit, that is infact how satelites work.I'll explain it the same way someone explained it to me, Its pretty cool..--Imagine a gun on top of a mountain, It fires a bullet and falls to the floor....Now imagine a bigger gun on top of a bigger mountain, it fires a bullet and falls to the floor but obviously further away...Now take it to account the curvature of the earth - this makes the bullet go a little further..If you get a big enough mountain and gun, the bullet will fall in the same curve as the curvature of the earth and stay in a continuous orbit.--Satelite bullet ^ Ps, My stoner conversations are arguments about ghosts, I dont believe in them because i know for a fact if i were a ghost id just haunt people and f**k around 24/7 and there arn't enough cases of ghostly behaviour for that to be true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haz Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 According to Newtons Law of Gravitation F=G (m1m2)/d^2, where G is the universal gravitational constant m1 and m2 are the masses of the two objects and d is the distance between the two object, the gravitational force is shared equally between the two bodies. So the earth has the exact same gravitational attraction to you, as you do to it. We know what gravity is, but the question of why particles attract one another is still not understood. For those of you who can be bothered to try and understand it, have a look at string theory becasue today it is regarded as the most promising theory for a unified description of the fundamental particles and forces in nature including gravity.That's not what gravity is though, that's what it does. Hence, it is a law of gravity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trials rules Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 (edited) You want free energy? Cold Fusion i believe it's called is when, instead of splitting the atom and creating a huge outward blast, the theory is that when two atoms are joined, it has the same principal of how a star, or the sun, gets its energy. If you can design something to take the heat, and sus the equation, you can effectively control the world, or a lot of it, just through bribery and being able to offer cheaper, cleaner power than oil and all the rest. Then the Iraq war realy would be a waste of time - but thats another story/arguement P.S read Chris Ryan's 'Ultimate Weapon' Edited January 8, 2007 by trials rules Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OD404 Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Fusion has been done (in France strangely enough). However to actually fuse atoms together in a similar way to the sun (which is where the idea came from), vast amounts of energy are reguired to get the particles moving fast enough so when they do collide they fuse. When they got it to work it was found that they had used more energy than they got out in creating this environment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ted Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Fusion has been done (in France strangely enough). However to actually fuse atoms together in a similar way to the sun (which is where the idea came from), vast amounts of energy are reguired to get the particles moving fast enough so when they do collide they fuse. When they got it to work it was found that they had used more energy than they got out in creating this environment.They managed it?!? I always thought it was impossible to achieve it on earth due to the massive pressures and temperatures involved. I assume you haven't confused fission with fusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Cable Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Ooo i have talked alot about cold fusion with this clever kid in my chemistry class. Isn't that where you get something so cold that 2 atoms will fuse together? thus creating silly amounts of clean energy?But wouldnt it need like stupid amounts of pressure?? that isnt actually possible on earth??meh i dunno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Fusion has been done. Cold fusion has not. At the moment you need to use bags of heat to make fusion happen so it's not a good way to make energy. The challenge is to get more out than you put in, and that's why the sun works, because it's on such a huge scale in the middle of a big vacuum (space) = less heat loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Concussion Posted January 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2007 Very intresting replys, thanks guys! .... I was expecting "stop smoking that shit", then dropped like a stone... on a length of string! ...g`night! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun H Posted January 9, 2007 Report Share Posted January 9, 2007 (edited) They managed it?!? I always thought it was impossible to achieve it on earth due to the massive pressures and temperatures involved. I assume you haven't confused fission with fusion.Fission doesn't require massive temperatures to initiate. And fission was first achieved by humans in a squash court in America ~1944.Fusion has been done. Cold fusion has not. At the moment you need to use bags of heat to make fusion happen so it's not a good way to make energy. The challenge is to get more out than you put in, and that's why the sun works, because it's on such a huge scale in the middle of a big vacuum (space) = less heat loss.The US Navy has achieved cold fusion. Was in New Scientist last year In the simplest looking cell you've ever seen too, but there's so much behind it, I didn't really understand alot of the lingo but it was very intereting. Fusion in the Sun is due to the massive pressures and temperatures (as mentioned in the top quote) in there causing plasma state in the hydrogen gas and then these atoms colliding with other hydrogens or heavier ions.Aaaaaaanyway, gravity. You won't find an explanation of it just lots and lots of theorys. This is because we don't have the knowledge or technology to have a way to prove any of the theorys. So we can just argue about it for pages and pages and pages instead...EDIT: It's like pythagoras theorum, we know it's right, but there's no way to prove it for all triangles, in that we may believe a theory is 100% right but we have no way to prove it. Edited January 9, 2007 by Shaun H Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simpson Posted January 9, 2007 Report Share Posted January 9, 2007 stop smoking that shitIf it wasnt for drugs we wouldnt have THE MIGHTY BOOSH and great things! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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