Today’s Poser

If all matter has gravity, what happens to its gravity when matter disappears, say in an atomic explosion ... or in the fusion producing the sun’s radiation?

Big Bang

One of the conundrums created by the Big Bang theory is: How did the universe get so big in such a short period of time? (see: Stack Exchange Discussion). Using classic expansion formulae, accounting for gravitational forces, the actual size early on seems impossible. However, if one assumes that gravity did not attach itself to matter until sometime after the Big Bang (even if just milliseconds), then it seems possible that the universe’s initial expansion could be much faster and larger than possible using Newtonian formulae. .... see: More on Gravity.

If this notion approximates the truth, then many of my assumptions about orphaned gravity, gravitons, gravity waves, dark matter, the Earth’s increasing gravity, etc. seem much more likely to be fact ... see: Gravity and Climate.

Wouldn’t that be a hoot?

More on Gravity

I recently posted a picture of the femur from a huge dinosaur ... see: Femur Found in France ... and speculated whether gravity has changed over the eons. I say this because it is doubtful that an animal this enormous could live today with today’s gravity pull. Note that the largest animal on Earth now is the blue whale which survives in an environment, sea water, where it’s buoyancy helps counteract today’s gravity. And the blue whale is much smaller than the land animal represented by the femur found in France. Therefore, it seems clear to me that gravity here on Earth must have increased to a level where such a behemoth could not exist today.

Einstein’s View

The questions then persist ... how and why? Newton called gravity a force and Einstein called it a warp in the space-time continuum. Others speculate gravity comes from an elementary particle called a graviton. In order to continue this discussion further, read first: Universe Today Write-up. On the other hand, I have speculate before that gravity is a fifth dimension ... one of the seven new ones predicted to exist in string theory mathematics.

I have also opined that the amount of gravity is finite and that, during the Big Bang, not all gravity found some mass “to attach to” ... and became dark matter (an ironic term since it apparently has no mass). And that this orphaned gravity is what causing the universe to expand ... because only that attached to mass would cause the universe to contract ... as the sum of  known mass would suggest. If this reasoning turns out to be fact, dark matter and dark energy are one and the same.

How can gravity be both another dimension and a form of free-floating dark matter? This I haven’t fully figured out yet. Maybe just the difference between a dimension and the metric that measures it?

So, to return to the original speculation about the Earth acquiring more gravity over time ... which has caused our animal populations to shrink in physical size. Perhaps “dark matter” or meandering gravity, unattached after the universe was created, does continually find homes in places like Earth ... and results in higher gravity readings over the eons. Of course, this needs be occurring simultaneously everywhere ... or else the gravitational relations between celestial bodies would go awry ... which would not be good.

Afterthought: Could the tipping point and the rapid disappearance of the dinosaurs have been finally caused by too much gravity?

More Than Meets the Eye

Scientist have long speculated that our universe has more dimensions than we now realize ... some offer as many as 24. Imagining an universe beyond four dimensions (length, width, depth and time) gets a little dicey. This has to do with our senses. Unless we can sense things with our eyes, we have difficulty imagining them as dimensions of our world (time being somewhat of an exception).

But what about our other senses? If gravity (or related "force") is a dimension, we actually can sense it without the use of our eyes. Same thing with temperature. What about color (yes, eyes are involved but,more broadly, the entire electromagnetic spectrum ... maybe adding brightness and saturation to the mix)? What about sound? What about magnetism? In this case other animals are said to have such sensors. My guess is when it is decided what any additional dimensions beyond four are finally agreed upon, they will not be tiny strings curled up (as string theory postulates) but much more pedestrian things like suggested above.

There is more to life (and science) than meets the eye ...

Afterward: Add speed (of light) to the above list. Didm't Einstein tell us that speed was absolute and not relative to its platform?

More Dark Stuff

To expand on yesterday's suppositions on dark matter and dark energy ... see: Dark Stuff, I  offer the following flights of my fancy:

Let's imagine that there is, in fact, a 5h dimension -- force. Let us call it virtual gravity (a force, mass/acceleration). Now, at the beginning of time, matter was being created in vast quantities. This matter needed gravity and could well grab acceleration from the denominator of virtual gravity ... leaving lots of virtual mass to stand alone as dark matter?

Initially matter and virtual matter would be pretty balanced, but as the billions of suns in our universe convert mass into energy, the ratio of dark matter to real matter would swing to where it is today -- 3 or 4 to one.

Next,  to dark energy. Because of the preponderance of dark matter, for billions of years our universe was collapsing until about five billion years ago when it started expanding again ... and this expansion is now accelerating. How can this be?  Let's go back to our 5th dimensional model. When matter is converted to energy, it likely loses its gravity. As, in our real world, more real matter is converted to real energy, the denominator, acceleration, in the virtual world is growing faster than the numerator (mass) and so things are reversed and our universe is once again expanding faster and faster. (Perhaps instead of dark energy, it should be called dark acceleration?)

Could be ...

Afterward: And the reason we cannot "see" dark matter and dark energy is that they live in a dimension beyon our senses and current understanding.

Dark Stuff

Dark Matter Map of the Universe

I was watching PBS last night. The viewed program's subject was dark matter and dark energy ... both concepts involving lots of speculation but few facts ... a little like the Mueller Russian collusion investigation. Although scientists don't know what comprises dark matter, they have been able to map its existence in the universe. Over eleven years ago I wrote a blog on this subject in "Junkier Science" with some speculations of my own on these subjects ... see: The Dark Side ... (still holds up.)

To summarize my included speculations I suggested that dark matter and dark energy may exist in dimension(s) beyond our current known four. (If Einstein can name a metric, time, as th e fourth dimension, why can't another metric, force (gravity), be another of the supposed eleven dimensions  under string theory?

Anyway, I find this type of loopy scientific speculation to be fun. I hope you do too.

Afterward: When Einstein called gravity a "warp in the space-time continuum"' he was suggesting that it was dimensional ... a mapping a fifth dimension onto a four-dimensional world.

Another Quote

"The strongest force on Earth next to gravity is peer pressure." -- Anon.

Platinum Standard

Platinum Ore

When I put together the most recent reddit Gallery for this blog, I looked at the platinum ore pictured and wondered how nature can aggregate oodles the platinum atoms in one place? Common sense suggests that the randomness at the start of things would create and/or distribute element atoms in a rather random and unspecific way ... an example of entropy. However, some natural forces such as gravity and magnetism did help to arrange certain elements, like iron, cobalt, nickel and the lighter gasses, together. But platinum? What subtle natural process gathered untold numbers of platinum atoms together to form the lump of ore pictured?

For the sake of argument let's assume that, during the Earth's formation, 37 of every 100,000 atoms were platinum atoms ...  see: Periodic Table Facts. What conceivable process could cause them to find each other to form the metal contained in an ore? Certainly when the Earth's crust was molten, over a billion years ago, there was a possibility of platinum atoms migrating towards one anther.  But how? Are there factors in the weak or strong atomic forces in physics that cause like atoms to seek out their likes in liquids or gasses? If there are, then nature has once again served mankind with a gratuitous benefit. Otherwise, we never could assemble enough disparate atoms of almost any element to utilize them the way we so effectively do today.

Just one more example of entropy not living up to its ballyhooed threat reputation.

Prescience

"Logic is logic, that's all I say." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Earthquakes that are associated with the pull of the sun's and moon's gravity have made a lot of sense to me in the past. If these orbs can affect the rise and fall of water ... the ocean tides ... why can't they affect the Earth's crust in a similar way? I have speculated on this in the past ... particularly during supermoons ... see: Supermoon. Now, it appears that I was onto something. This phenomenon apparently has been repeatedly detected in the San Andreas fault in California ... see: LA Times Story.

It would seem to me that those living in earthquake zones should pay close attention to the relative positions of the Earth, the sun and the moon. Just a thought ...

Warp

Einstein postulated in his Theory of General Relativity that there were something he called "gravitational waves." Now scientists have detected such animals in a highly, highly refined experiment that is likely to win the Nobel Prize in physics ... see: New York Times Article. If you, like I, are a little confounded by such ephemera, then you might need a little insight into the importance of this discovery.

Einstein wavered about the existence of these gravity waves, but once did describe them as a "warp in the space-time continuum." But exactly what does this mean? Well a warp is a bending or a change ... and is frequently depicted in the image above. However, to me, this warping is more "dimension like." Knowing that the three dimensions of space is changed by the forth dimension of time, then these four dimensions of space-time are changed by what I had postulate to be another dimension which was gravity ... see: Gravity's Rainbow.

So, just as trying to depict the notion of time in a strictly three dimensional world is difficult, this depiction of gravity as a "warp in the space-time continuum" seems to me a little strained. I think we should just imagine it as it is ... another dimension to our existence. If you want my thoughts about what some of the other dimensions might be see : Speed Limit ... or for an earlier take, see: Brought to You by the Number 10. (Note that in both of my theories, gravity is indicated as a dimension.)

Does your brain hurt yet?

Gravity

The force of gravity is agreed to by 98% of all scientists ... so it clearly must be true.  (However, Einstein did believe that it is just a warp in the space-time continuum.)

Gravity also exists in politics. So now we see how uber-liberal Bernie Sanders is the gravitational attraction pulling Hillary Clinton to the left ... and Donald Trump is a similar force pulling some of the Republican presidential contenders to the right. And, to my mind, this is a good thing for, of late, the Democrat and Republican parties have become two sides of the same coin.

This political gravity then might mean that, come the next presidential election whoever the candidates, the voters should be given a real choice for a change. How very special ...