Three things I thought of whilst taking a shower this morning:

1) When the moon is directly overhead, I imagine that the gravity of the moon is canceling out the gravity of the earth by a little bit, so when this happens, are we lighter? And by how much?

2) Consider this improbable scenario: If the very very center of the earth were a small hollow room pressurized to normal 14psi levels (that wasn't about to collapse in on itself), and I were IN there (yikes)... what would I feel? Would I feel the gravitational pull of the earth around me pulling me in all directions? How many G's would be pulling me in every direction?

3) Is there any known way to "block" gravitational pull? Anti-gravity, they would call it, I guess. Assuming there were a way to block it, would it be possible to use this technology for mundane transportation in the world we live in? For example, we can equip a train with anti-grav plating on the underside and the sides, and fit "gravity rudders" on the underside, that basically can be swiveled front-to-back to "point" in the direction that we want gravity to pull us. It might make the train a little bit lighter (not a bad thing, to a point), and it would pull the train in the direction we needed. We might also use dynamic anti-grav plating on the underside of our sports cars to control the tradeoff between traction & lightness. To get more lightness, you'd swivel the anti-grav plat to face parallel to the ground. To get more traction, you'd swivel it perpendicular to the ground (sort of like turning on/off a gas pipe valve).

Anyone else have any interesting gravity theory or side-effects or uses, etc? And... am I going crazy? I think I like physics and the possibilities of things.

 

Tall buildings actually grow when the moon is closer to the earth. I has been estimated that the Empire State Building grows by as much as 12 inches!

 

Ok steve quick formula.

Force between two objecs = Fn
G = a universal constant ~(7*10 ^-11) Gravity in I think Newtons
M1 Mass of you
M2 mass of moon
R distance from you you to moon.

Also M3 mass of earth
And when using this you can imagine that the center of the earth is the point of reference is to use for R.

So find force in relation to you and the earth and then you and the moon and you get your answer.

For you and the moon it's

Fn= ((M1*M2)/(R^2))*G

Then = ((M1*M3)/(R^2))*G

Volia real easy isn't steve. Well I think my formula's are correct my mind wasnders during the afternoon,

 

1) You're lighter, and it *might* be measurable, but the variations of body weight due to fluid loss from respiration and perspiration would swamp the measurement.

2) Assuming that you're at the geometric center (where the mass around you was completely even in all directions), you would feel weightless.

3) As far as we know, there is no way to block gravity. There are any number of theories dealing with the forces behind gravitational attraction, but as far as I know, until the Unified Theory comes along, none of them are completely satisfactory.

Tim

 

No offense to anyone, but I have to say this is unbelievable. 12 inches is a lot of growing to do for the slight difference in gravitational pull the moon provides. According to the the official ESB website 110 mph winds only move it 1.48 inches side to side and I know that the gravitational force of the moon is less than the force provided by winds of that speed. Again, I am not trying to attack anyone personally, so please don't be upset.

David

 

They are right steve (well fear itself), the sun in fact has more effect of Gravity over the moon then the earth does, and the empire state building does not stretch, if it did we would have serious trouble with the buildup of any building since the distance from the top of the empire state and the distance from the top of your head is mathmatically about the same.

Now if we had the ability to measure your weight I would say with a little math that you are about 1*10-9 grams lighter, or put another way 1 Pico/Nano Gram lighter.

Now since we imagine that every particule in the universe has a effect on each other there are a infinite number of vectors, now if we take the earth as a sum of its vectors has a spot dead in the middle that is the center for computing R as a distance for the entire earths effect of other particules. (got that) So if you were in the middle of the earth and it was by itself in a vaccum you would float. Well officially you would be pulled in every direction at 1/2G


But if we put you in the middle of the sun you would be pulled apart because of the large gravity all around you. Similar principle different environment.

Alright enough physics for tonight I believe.

 

Ooh very interesting -- I'm surprised that the extra mass that the Sun has still has more effect than the moon given how far away the Sun is by comparison. The dropoff in gravitational strength isn't linear!

Are you sure it's 1/2G? I was wondering what it would be earlier, and I hesitate to say it's 1/2G for the following reason: If our definition of 1G is the gravitational pull we feel when standing on the surface of the earth, that means the 1G is composed of the pull felt by all the mass in the earth (for the most part). i.e. Not only do we have the diameter of the earth pulling us down, but we have all the rest of the earth pulling us down a little bit diagonally, which I assume would contribute to the overall downward pull. If that's 1G, and in the center of the earth, you have the radius of the earth to pull you outward, but not as much to the diagonal 1 radius away.

Makes sense -- ok so here's a question. There are two ways for our bodies to be pulled apart -- by gravitational force & by lack of pressure (vacuum). I've heard that if you're in space, you get pulled apart due to the vacuum. So does this mean in the scenario where I'm stuck in a vacuum-filled room at the center of the earth, if the gravity isn't strong enough to pull me apart, is the vacuum going to do that anyway?

 

My dear friend, I hope that you are not in a physics related field of work. A gram is a unit of mass.

 

I am in a related field I sometimes us the wrong unit in order to simplify things as it makes more since to the casual reader. And yes a gram is a unit of mass and a pound is a unit of weight but typically when you are talking about modifications of gravity you would use grams or kilograms in order to have a variable that you can easily convert.


Now if we were taking about kinase small molecule targets then I can get more specific, I am just spewing ou what I remember from my last physics class. from

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Fear Itself
[B]

No offense to anyone, but I have to say this is unbelievable.