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darkbob5150
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If you read the editors notes about a book called Pushing Gravity (http://redshift.vif.com/BookBlurbs/PushingGravity.htm ) it tells you of a theory that describes the mechanism of gravity:
"The basic idea runs like this. Space is filled with minute particles or waves of some description which strike bodies from all sides. A tiny fraction of the incident waves or particles is absorbed in this process. A single body will not move under this influence, but where two bodies are present each will be progressively urged into the shadow of the other."
It's a nice idea at first glance - when the sun is nearby, the particles coming toward the Earth through the sun are partially absorbed - so fewer of them are coming from the sun than from the other side. Therefore the Earth feels a net impulse towards the sun which is inversley proportional to the square of the distance just as in Newtons law.
The problem, as Feynman points out in his lectures, is that the Earth is moving around the sun. This would result in more particles being absorbed from the forward side than the rear side (like running into the rain) and would produce a resistance to motion that would slow down the orbital speed. If you calcultate it, it doesn't give enough time for the Earth to still be in it's orbit.
I hope the writer of the book reads this forum...
"The basic idea runs like this. Space is filled with minute particles or waves of some description which strike bodies from all sides. A tiny fraction of the incident waves or particles is absorbed in this process. A single body will not move under this influence, but where two bodies are present each will be progressively urged into the shadow of the other."
It's a nice idea at first glance - when the sun is nearby, the particles coming toward the Earth through the sun are partially absorbed - so fewer of them are coming from the sun than from the other side. Therefore the Earth feels a net impulse towards the sun which is inversley proportional to the square of the distance just as in Newtons law.
The problem, as Feynman points out in his lectures, is that the Earth is moving around the sun. This would result in more particles being absorbed from the forward side than the rear side (like running into the rain) and would produce a resistance to motion that would slow down the orbital speed. If you calcultate it, it doesn't give enough time for the Earth to still be in it's orbit.
I hope the writer of the book reads this forum...
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