The Myth of Gravity.

The Myth of Gravity.

There is no such phenomenon as a ‘force of gravity’ that sucks things together instantaneously at all distances.  It is a myth that came into Physics while Natural Philosophy was still part Theology.  Like Theology, it is ‘arm-chair philosophy’, thinking up the world  ‘a priori’. 

The world does behave as if there were such a ‘force’, but this is just a heuristic model.   that is not the same as accepting as an act of faith that such a ‘force’ exists and is the cause of the observations.

Everything we attribute to Gravity can be explained by simple Mechanics, examining the Potential and Kinetic energy possessed by Mass, and describing the conversion of one to the other.

The apple fell on Sir Isaac Newton’s head because it had acquired potential energy as the tree grew and lifted it up as well as the ‘work’ done in lifting the water up the biological system that became trapped in the pendulous apple.

Like all systems at a higher level of energy than their surroundings, as soon as some form of releasing that energy is available, the body dissipates it according to strict mathematical rules.  When something is hot, it wants to cool down, and if there are convection currents, or a conductor making contact, it will cool down, and it will even radiate away the heat to cool down.

In the same way something with Potential Energy, like the apple that is only held aloft by the slenderest of twigs, will reduce this energy level if possible.  When the twig snaps, the potential energy changes to kinetic energy according to the well-known formulae, but it has nothing to do with being sucked down by a ‘force’.

Now we have dispelled that myth, it is clear that another must be exposed.  There is no ‘Dark Matter’.  The whole concept of the galaxy is misunderstood, because of the belief in the ‘force’ of Gravity.  The model used by Physicists is of a giant wheel, with spokes like the tendrils of the ‘force of Gravity’ holding on to everything as it spins around.  Or like a huge Merry-go-round, with the horses, or constellations, held in place and tied to the centre by the structure of the machine.  It is a simple calculation, and even common sense would confirm that a vastly large Merry-go-round would have distant horses racing at incredible speeds, and that the ropes or linkages that held on to them would need to be very strong to stop them all flying off into the distance.  The mathematical rules that we have already accepted as apparently valid would indicate that for Gravity to provide the ‘force’ there would need to be about ten times more mass than obviously exists. 

Assuming a ‘big bang’ or something equivalent the details of which we need not now consider, after which all matter moved away from itself, expanding radially in all directions.  Then, if one considers that initially the rate of expansion was exceedingly high, but was gradually converted to Potential Energy, in the same way that any forms of matter that move apart from each other must increase the Potential Energy between them.  It is only by the imposition of some form of Energy upon Matter, that Masses can have their distances changed, which is Newton’s valid, First Law.

In the Early Universe, as imagined, the tiniest wave-packets of potential matter must have been quite random and moving apart at vast speeds that were gradually decreasing.  We know from Mathematics that random chaos becomes clumped by chance, and so by the time atoms had formed, there were places throughout the Cosmos where bits of matter were already seeding the inter-play and multi-dimensional tug of war between all particles everywhere.  The bigger some bits get, the more they suck in other, smaller bits.  This process has proceeded till now, when we have a Cosmos dotted with ‘black holes’ that are super-compressed matter that posses Potential Energy with particles in their vescinity.  They act like a plug-hole as all the surrounding dust and particles are gradually sucked in.  The spinning happens for a similar reason that cyclones form, and they become flat due to the associated spinning magnetic field.   

Galaxies are not big wheels, held together by Gravity, but the swirling patterns of intergalactic dust that are falling down, into a central hole.  It is only recently that Astronomers stopped denying the existence of a massive Black Hole at the centre of every Galaxy, including our.  The masses that may be correctly estimated for galactic Black Holes might only be a fraction of the mass that has fallen into them.  Some mechanism that we as yet cannot contemplate might convert this Mass back to Energy in forms we cannot perceive and this could be the missing ‘Dark Energy’ that appears to be making galaxies move apart at an increasing rate, because they must be acquiring the Kinetic Energy of this expansion from somewhere.

Einstein asserted that the ‘force’ of Gravity did not exist but he explained the appearance of matter behaving as if such a ‘force’ did exist by the two dimensional image of an elastic sheet, warped by the weight of matter down which other matter will tend to roll.  However, that is just a geometric model of the underlying mathematics.

The recently observed phenomenon called ‘gravity waves’ that are postulated to result from the collision of galactic Black Holes is not proof of the existence of hypothetical ‘gravitons’ and their associated gravity waves that are postulated to be the mechanism for the promulgation of Gravity through space. 

Engineering, like our traditional schools of Physics, believes in Gravity and tries to overcome it by clumsy means.  With a better understanding of Energy as a fundamental state of existence instead of the mythical and spooky ‘force of Gravity’, we may yet devise means of transport that change our Momentum and Potential Energy in ways that seem like Science Fiction now.

Science progresses by postulating possibilities ‘a priori’ from theory and from first principles.  Then, most importantly, the theories are tested against the Real World using repeatable experimentation.  Only what is proved to exist, both with consistent theories as well as physical evidence can exist.  What is not yet known to Science does not yet exist.  However, there is another possible logical difficulty.  Just because a theory appears to be in accordance with the Real World, and does successfully predict outcomes, it does not mean that theory is correct.  More than one possible way the world could exist could produce the same set of real world outcomes.  Just because the Theory of Gravity provides good mathematical predictions does not mean it is the explanation, it is a Syndrome, not a Disease, to use an analogy.

Another branch of Science that would benefit from abandoning the Myth of Gravity is Quantum Mechanics, at the smallest scales of physical size that are imaginable.  Electricity and Magnetism were shown to be related ‘fields’ and they can be integrated with the Strong and Weak forces that only occur within the nucleus of atoms, but if Gravity exists as a ‘force’ in the world we perceive at the scales of magnitude we experience, then it must exist at the sub-atomic level where the rules of Physics become Quantum Mechanics, and there the quest for Quantum Gravity is one of the still unsolved problems in Physics.  Except there is no problem as there is no Gravity.

In this new Millenium, our human understanding of the world is going to be quite different from the primitive perceptions and folk-explanations that satisfied our ancestors.  Whether we believe in our own Consciousness and a Universal Consciousness or not, we no longer need a ‘God of the Gaps’ to explain the real world, nor do we need a mythical ‘force’ to explain why we fall off cliffs.