The Cellar - View Single Post - Evolutionary Science-v- Creationism

DanaC · 05-07-2004, 08:05 PM

"" from sciencenet.org
Einstein went on to show that light would bend in a gravitational field.

Since light had no mass Newton’s theory could not explain this bending. Einstein’s great contribution was to show that spacetime actually curved due to mass. Like a bowling ball sitting on a rubber sheet, space would curve near the mass but remain reasonably flat farther away. Only if light passed close to the large mass would its path be appreciably deviated. Experiments have now been performed which show that light really does bend near a mass due to the curvature of spacetime.

But this is not the final answer to what gravity is. General relativity cannot be reconciled with quantum mechanics and there is a lot of ongoing research in this field. Gravity is only one of four fundamental forces which are all equally mysterious. The four forces are gravitation, related to mass, electromagnetic, related to the charge of a particle, the strong force and the weak force which are both related to properties of particles in the nucleus. The reason why these forces are linked to certain particles properties is not very well understood. The most promising theory is superstring theory. But until a full theory a quantum gravity is devised the question “what is gravity?’” will remain unanswered."

Fair enough. We dont know ultimately what gravity is.

05-07-2004, 08:05 PM	#80
DanaC We have to go back, Kate! Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Yorkshire Posts: 25,964	"" from sciencenet.org Einstein went on to show that light would bend in a gravitational field. Since light had no mass Newton’s theory could not explain this bending. Einstein’s great contribution was to show that spacetime actually curved due to mass. Like a bowling ball sitting on a rubber sheet, space would curve near the mass but remain reasonably flat farther away. Only if light passed close to the large mass would its path be appreciably deviated. Experiments have now been performed which show that light really does bend near a mass due to the curvature of spacetime. But this is not the final answer to what gravity is. General relativity cannot be reconciled with quantum mechanics and there is a lot of ongoing research in this field. Gravity is only one of four fundamental forces which are all equally mysterious. The four forces are gravitation, related to mass, electromagnetic, related to the charge of a particle, the strong force and the weak force which are both related to properties of particles in the nucleus. The reason why these forces are linked to certain particles properties is not very well understood. The most promising theory is superstring theory. But until a full theory a quantum gravity is devised the question “what is gravity?’” will remain unanswered." Fair enough. We dont know ultimately what gravity is.