Even today, it's not totally clear 'how' gravity works. We've observed it working and observed the laws it seems to follow, yet the processes occurring to make it work aren't entirely clear.
Maurice Cotterell has written an essay called How Gravity Works that attempts to explain it as well as explain the structure of atoms, the nature of dark matter, why spiral galaxies are spiraled, and why the earth's core is hot.
If you're not familiar with Cotterell, he is what I suppose many people would call a 'fringe' scientist. He's a credentialed electrical engineer, but he's famous for writing books with some rather far-fetched (even for me!) theories. To sum up the material included in his books, he essentially combines research on solar science, archaeological finds, and a lot of imagination to declare a hypothesis that King Tut, Lord Pacal (of Mayan fame), Jesus Christ, and King Arthur are reincarnations of the same 'sun god' (or 'sun king') who leaves behind 'clues' to the path of enlightenment. As ridiculous as that may or may not sound to you, some of his research is rather interesting, even if his hypothesis sounds like something someone tripping on LSD would declare.
His books and wild theories aside, his scientific essay on how gravity works leaves out some of his more imaginative, fantasy-like conclusions. I thought his essay was rather intriguing and actually made sense. If you're curious about how gravity works and how it relates to the structure of atoms and how hot the core of the earth is, I recommend you go to his website and read it. There is a 2 page summary of it, however, I recommend you actually read the whole essay if you really want to get the gist of it. The full essay is only 15 pages and many of those pages are diagrams, so it shouldn't take you too long to read through the whole thing.
Read the essay here.
This was actually really interesting. I usually go numb with physics because my focus was generally medical science, but admittedly, this was clear and understandable conceptually. I liked the explanation of helically polarized EM radiation. It makes logical sense to me. I wonder if others in the field take this seriously or look at his title and roll their eyes? The crazy thing is there were men like Da Vinci who sketched out helicopters. The man was an artist, but he could conceive of devices to fly men around. People probably laughed at him back then, but nowadays he was a visionary. Very cool--thanks for the neat post!
ReplyDeleteJeff;
ReplyDeleteYou like interesting topics that include science's applications to the world of the paranormal. I started wondering lately about Gallopin' Gertie--the bridge that nearly every physics class makes people watch on film (you can find the film on YouTube). I thought it'd be cool to do a post about resonant frequency and how it might affect paranormal activity, but admittedly with my editing of my novel and short stories and other posts, I haven't had the time to research the subject, but I think it's intriguing that if the right resonant frequency is hit, an object can break apart. I wonder how this might apply to paranormal activity. If you're interested in the subject, run with it. Otherwise, it ends up in my pile of never-gonna-finish posts.
Yeah, I particularly liked how he showed the structure of an atom and his explanation on how gravity works using the Archimedes screw as an example.
ReplyDeleteThe Galloping Gertie bridge thing you mentioned sounds really interesting. I just watched a clip of it swaying. In addition to an object breaking apart when the right resonant frequency is hit, I also wonder if resonant frequencies can have an effect on an object that can make it lighter and easier to move. I still wonder how Edward Leedskaalnin was able to move blocks of stone weighing many tons by himself...and also wonder if he wasn't using some lost technique that the ancients may have used too.
Unfortunately, I probably won't have time to research it either...at least not anytime soon. I just started a new job and it's taking up a lot of my time now.
Hey Jeff;
ReplyDeleteHope you enjoy your new job. Getting into the groove at a new job will take time. I thought something about Gertie did strike a note and I see you caught the correlation too. I thought you might like to know, I wrote the post about the relics at Aspen Grove that I read. Enjoy.