Reflected Gravitational Waves 329
WSOGMM sends in an arXiv blog post about reflecting gravity waves. The speculation is that reflected gravity could go some ways toward explaining the odd readings being returned by Gravity Probe B. "In the couple of weeks since he introduced the idea that superconducting sheets can reflect gravity waves, Raymond Chiao from the University of California, Merced, has been busy with a couple of buddies working out how big this effect is... Chiao and co. ask how big the effect of a gravitational wave on a thin superconducting sheet is compared to the effect on an ordinary conducting sheet. The answer? 42 orders of magnitude bigger."
Superconducting spheres (Score:3, Interesting)
Gravity Shielding (Score:2, Interesting)
Truly Amazing (Score:5, Interesting)
This theory has implications that could revolutionize scientific thought across numerous fields. It may even provide some direction for the unified theory people to look in that isn't horribly complex and require inventing 1700 dimensions to make the math work.
Also if people don't understand how large 42 orders of magnitude really is 10 is one order of magnitude. 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 is 42 orders of magnitude... Granted the numbers they are dealing with are very very small to start with and even 42 magnitudes larger is still pretty damn small this change in scale is mind boggling and shows much more we have to learn about the universe in general and the properties of superconductors in particular.
-Lify
This is a-posteriori explanation of GP-B issue (Score:5, Interesting)
Heim Theory [wikipedia.org] predicted such effects in 1950s already. Droscher & Hauser have suggested mechanism based on Heim Theory which was a-priori prediction as commented in the cover story of New Scientist Jan 2006 [newscientist.com], 3 months before Tajmar's announcement on the ESA homepage [esa.int].
Here is the latest paper [hpcc-space.de] from Droscher & Hauser which gives explanation for outcome of both Tajmar and GP-B experiments.
Personally I like this part:
Numerous experiments by Tajmar et al. were carried out since 2003, and first published in 2006 report on the generation of gravitomagnetic (spacetime twisting) and gravity-like fields (acceleration) in the laboratory. The gravitational effects measured were about 18-20 orders of magnitude larger than predicted by the Lense-Thirring effect of GR. In other words, the rotating niobium ring, having a mass of some 100 grams as utilized by Tajmar et al., produces a gravitational effect similar to the mass of a a white dwarf.
/Joss
Re:So... (Score:5, Interesting)
While that is definitely true, and an important caveat, the fact that there is a connection at all between electromagnetism and gravity was somewhat unexpected - physicists did expect to eventually unify the theories, but probably not in a way where one affects the other like this. Don't underestimate the importance of this discovery.
Plus, there may be corresponding interactions between, I don't know, petahertz-level magnetic or electric waves (not plain old photons, mind) that have larger, more useful effects on gravity. Maybe. At any rate, the possibility is open now; we're allowed to hope.
Re:So... (Score:3, Interesting)
We then have to ask what happens if you vibrate the semiconductor in a non-uniform but static gravitational field.
The ultimate success would be a gravity shield where we could setup standing waves that nulled out the gravitational field. Even if it turned out that the energy required to do this matched the gravitational potential energy of any object that had it's gravity nulled it would make a fantastic addition to a space elevator, the climbers would now only need to carry enough energy to overcome friction on their way up.
Tim.
Re:So... (Score:3, Interesting)
I understand the difference (the wave is simply a fluctuation of the medium), but are we really sure that gravity is only a curvature? the speed of gravity is not infinite, (IANAP, but from what I have read from various articles) it is the speed of light, so could it be that gravity is a sort of a particle, undetected so far, with properties similar to a photon? i.e. no rest mass, with only kinetic energy.
Is arxiv actually legit? (Score:4, Interesting)
There's a couple of proofs that P=NP, gravity waves, all these holy grails are in there. I wonder if they should rename this site: "Popular Mechanics Research"
death of strong equivalence principle (Score:1, Interesting)
It is already known that Einstein's views on gravity are not compatible with quantum theory. Many theorists suspect that the strong equivalence principle is wrong. Thinking of gravity as a curvature of space-time itself has its days numbered.
Just look up "does uniformly accelerated charge radiate" and the Unruh effect in your favorite search engine.
Re:We now know the question to the answer... (Score:2, Interesting)
Matell, are you taking notes?? (Score:1, Interesting)
There have been rumblings about this sort of thing in various crackpot circles for years. A good reference is the following from NASA's breakthrough propulsion project:
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/bpp/overview.html [nasa.gov]
See "Podkletnov Gravity Shield"
I hope someone a lot smarter than myself starts taking this crap seriously because I want my damn hoverboard!!