The Speed Of Gravity Revealed

redwolfoz writes "New Scientist is reporting that the speed of gravity has been measured for the first time. 'The landmark experiment shows that it travels at the speed of light, meaning that Einstein's general theory of relativity has passed another test with flying colours.' Researchers made the measurement of the fundamental physical constant with the help of the planet Jupiter. One important consequence of the result is that it will help constrain the number of possible dimensions in the Universe."

Wow.

[Skyshadow]

Wow, that's pretty cool. Now if we could only figure out why and how gravity works, we'd be in business.

Flying Colours

[EuroChild]

But of course, travelling at the speed of light, all the flying colours just appeared red due to the red-shift.

Re:Wow.

[56]

Gravity works because we believe in it. Just stop believing in it and it will stop working.

Not working? You must not be trying hard enough.

Uh-oh

[Saint Aardvark]

I've got a 3-year old goddaughter who is just gonna cry when I explain to her why, in real life, the coyote would get the road runner.

Practical Applications

[handy_vandal]

Sure, this experiment will "help constrain the number of possible dimensions in the Universe" ... but will it lead to new weapons?

Re:Wow.

[Evil Adrian]

The order of universal forces, from strongest to weakest, is Electomagnetic, Strong, Weak, and Gravitational. So gravity, you see, is the weakest force in the universe.

Try telling Sonny Bono that.

Re:Practical Applications

[56]

Well, we can now pull Saddam out of Iraq at the speed of light, all we need is a gravity generator.

Ideas, anyone?

Re:Wow.

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

Gravity works because we believe in it.
Thats the Hanna-Barbera Law of Special Relativity.

Re:Wow.

[Rauser]

To test this, you just have to throw yourself at the floor... and miss!

Speed of light?

[grub]

When I fall down drunk I never thought I was moving that fast.

Actually there is something faster than light...

[beej]

"One of the problems has to do with the speed of light and the difficulties involved in trying to exceed it. You can't. Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws. The Hingefreel people of Arkintoofle Minor did try to build spaceships that were powered by bad news but they didn't work particularly well and were so extremely unwelcome whenever they arrived anywhere that there wasn't really any point in being there."

--Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

Re:Wow.

[Anonymous Coward]

Try telling Sonny Bono that.

Or Pamela Anderson, for that matter.

Re:Woh, man.

[haedesch]

There is that word again! Is there something wrong with the gravitational pull of earth in the eighties?

Re:Wow.

[grammar fascist]

Gravity works because we believe in it. Just stop believing in it and it will stop working.

I've had good luck so far just not looking down, and not reading the sign.

Modulating the Speed of Gravity

[DeComposer]

Jack Daniels makes the speed of gravity faster.

Re:Sorry if i'm Skeptical

[stratjakt]

You're right!

It's all a big scam. I bet George W Bush and the DMCA are behind it, having been bought by Microsoft!

Gravity Weapon: Wide-Spread Effect

[handy_vandal]

Sure, we could pull Saddam out of Iraq with a gravity generator ... pull out the Tigris and Euphrates, while we're at it -- the whole damned Cradle of Civilization.

Re:Cowardly for a reason!

[dracken]

Something doesnt have to have mass to have speed. Plonk a stone on a pond, you create waves. The waves have speed but dont have "mass" per se. Gravity in general relativity is similar. The entire universe is immersed in Space-time (kinda like water in a pond). Objects inside spacetime tend to "warp" spacetime. Like poking a finger into a stretched rubber sheet, creating a depression. So objects near them tend to tumble into the depression - bingo! this is gravity. This is what general relativity says. Now if this is true, warping in spacetime cannot occur instantaneously (no wave travels faster than light) as assumed in newtonian mechanics. This is what has been proved now. "Distortions in space-time does not propagate faster than light" or in other words "gravity does not travel faster than light". So no "mass" or "moving object" is involved per se.

Speed of Darkness...

[edashofy]

Well, now we have the speed of light AND the speed of gravity! If we can find out the Speed of Darkness, we'll be all set!

Bagh humbug!!

[angry old man]

You kids and all your fancy-schmancy gravity experiments. Back in my day, we showed a little more respect for our elders... and for gravity because it tells you up's up and down's down. Once you start foolin' around measuring this gravity speeds this and that gravitron's that and the next thing you know you'll be flung up into the air and there won't be a down to go to. Bagh. That will serve you right for messing around with things that you should have a little respect for.

I had to walk up hill to school both ways and because of gravity, I liked it!

it's not circular argument

[RelliK]

I prefer to think of it as having no loose ends...

school lunches

[zogger]

"mass equivalence" hmm that means photons are almost the same as that stuff that was laying on the plate on thursdays back at my old junior high. It was a meat-like equivalent.

Awwwww, yeah!

[flacco]

One important consequence of the result is that it will help constrain the number of possible dimensions in the Universe.

YESSS! In your FACE, Infinite-dimension Universe theorists! You SUCK!

Yeaaaaah! Gimme one up top, bro!

Re:Wow.

[Jim Hall]

Gravity works because we believe in it. Just stop believing in it and it will stop working.

Ah, you must be referring to flying [hhgproject.org]:

There is an art, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Pick a nice day and try it. All it requires is simply the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and the willingness not to mind that it's going to hurt.

Re:Event Horizon

[skaffen42]

the energy of a photon has a mass equivalence, but it does not have mass

Bastard. I'm going to have sleepless nights trying to figure out what the hell you mean by that. This is not the kind of concept mere mortals like me should have to deal with while sober.

Well...

[Kibo]

It's a winner because it's at the top, mentions something in the article, yet doesn't mention soviet russia, what Natalie Portman does with goats and/or grits in her spare time, or make accusations about slashdot editors having latent homosexual tendancies or their virginity intact.

Kudos Skyshadow.

Moderation observations, while sometimes entertaining, are probably best left without indepth examination. For instance: I learned today that Gigi Edgley and her white makeup are offtopic in a Farscape discussion. And, that if you write a technical book which is well recieved and reviewed on slashdot, anything you write will be modded up as informative, including your jokes.

Oddly enough, an AC said it best with, "In Soviet Russia, moderators make YOU laugh." Or something like that.

When I hear "Sonny Bono", I think...

[yerricde]

Sonny Bono's failure to grasp rudimentary physics can be seen as yet another case of evolution in action.

But can Sonny Bono's failure to grasp rudimentary constitutional law [pineight.com] be seen as yet another case of evolution in action?

Officer...

[batobin]

...you see, it's all component forces. If you look at the free body diagram of my car travelling on the road, you'll see the normal force, force of gravity, and my velocity in the x direction. As I mentioned, one of these component forces is gravity, labelled FsubG. It was recently discovered, and posted on slashdot, that the speed of said force is 3x10^7m/s.

And THAT'S why, officer, your radar reported that I was going 60 in a 40 zone!

Whew!

[bazmonkey]

One important consequence of the result is that it will help constrain the number of possible dimensions in the Universe.

You're damn right. I was worried.

Dimensions running rampant without limit... what's next, violent television and people masturbating???

It's a sad, sad world. Good thing we have that dimensional problem under control!

Dammit!

[digitalsushi]

I asked my physics teacher the very same exact question- "if the sun disappeared, would the earth fly off from its orbit instantly, or would it take about 8 minutes?" He goes "it would be like snipping a cord- instantaneous". Discouraged, I went into the slashdot-posting, linux compiling netadmin that I am today, never knowing the true path of lab coats, leather gauntlets, and welding glasses that is physics- How dare you Stockwell! You stole my life with an assumption and I want my five years back!!!

Re:Event Horizon

[Anonymous Coward]

"Light does not have mass. This is why it is capable of travelling at the speed of light"

actually, i think the fact that it is named "light" is the reason it can travel at "the speed of light".

Re:Wow.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeap. It is at the speed of light.

As soon as the character looked down and saw that they are over a cliff, they started falling down.

Re:you slowing down?

[Xeth]

I don't know about you, but I'm always moving at (c - 3E8 m/s).

Technically c is just under 3E8 m/s. So you're constantly moving backward?

What the physics geeks really think

[hayden]

I think this quote sums it up pretty well.

"Remember the Unified Field Theory? Well, forget it. Physicists have pretty much thrown in the towel on unifying gravity with the other elemental forces, so now we have the Standard Model, which says that everything works together in intricate harmony except gravity, which is on holiday in Tasmania and need not concern us further."
- Jon Carroll on the Higgs Boson

Re:Officer...

[Idarubicin]

It was recently discovered, and posted on slashdot, that the speed of said force is 3x10^7m/s.

And THAT'S why, officer, your radar reported that I was going 60 in a 40 zone!

Well, no wonder you had a problem. The speed of light is ten times slower in your universe that in that of the officer's. When his radar beam slowed passing into your frame of reference, your apparent speed increased proportionally.

But just try explaining that to a jury.

That's why scientists changed the speed of Light

[bahwi]

"You can't go faster than the speed of light."

"Of course not. That's why scientists changed the speed of light in 2208."

Travelling at the speed of light? I think not...

[Anonymous Coward]

... in fact, light is travelling at the speed of gravity.

Re:Wow.

[salimma]

That's easy. just tie a cat feet-to-feet and a buttered toast, buttered side up, on your head, and jump.

The cat has to land on its feet, the toast has to land on the buttered side, so you can't fall!

Re:Wow.

[salimma]

Hey, whoever moderated the parent post as +1 Informative, I hope it was done in a light mood and you were not serious about it :P

That, or I underestimated the grave state of public school education :-p

Not quite

[Cybrex]

I tried your experiments and found the results to be somewhat less than satisfactory (even taking into account my poor aim). I realized that the problem was air friction messing up my numbers.

The solution, of course, was to put my colleague in a vacuum and repeat the experiment. I'm at work right now and work sucks, so creating a vacuum wasn't a problem. My coworker was still dazed by my earlier experiment, so that posed no problem.

Lo and behold, your proposal was correct! I'm sure that if my cohort was still alive he'd be just as thrilled as I am!

Thanks!
-Cybrex