Electrical fields can be negated, but what about gravitational fields?

AI Thread Summary
Surrounding a region with a conducting surface effectively shields it from electric fields due to the separation of positive and negative charges, which cancels the field inside. However, gravitational fields cannot be shielded in the same way because there are no negative gravitational charges to create a similar cancellation effect. This fundamental difference between electric and gravitational fields leads to confusion about the shielding concept. The inability to negate gravitational fields highlights the unique properties of gravity compared to electromagnetism. Understanding these distinctions is crucial for grasping the nature of different physical fields.
michael650
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I was curious, that if we surround some region with a conducting surface, we shield it from electric fields, correct? Well I was wondering specifically why we cannot shield a region from gravitational fields in the same manner? I figured it was pretty intuitive, but the more I thought about it, the more confused I became!
 
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Because there is no "negative mass", in other words it's not like electric charge where you have +/-.

Just because it is called a field doesn't mean you can think about it like E fields.
 
welcome to pf!

hi michael650! welcome to pf! :wink:
michael650 said:
I was curious, that if we surround some region with a conducting surface, we shield it from electric fields, correct? Well I was wondering specifically why we cannot shield a region from gravitational fields in the same manner? I figured it was pretty intuitive, but the more I thought about it, the more confused I became!

the positive and negative charges on the conducting surface separate into different regions, so as to exactly cancel out the field inside the conductor …

as Curl :smile: says, there are no negative gravitational "charges", so that can't happen to the gravitational field
 
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