8 Answers
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NOT AT PRESENT , but there are discoveries that come together like a giant picture puzzle! Please note some ideas come together:
*** g89 10/8 pp. 18-19 The Fascinating Force of Gravity ***
Gravity Waves
On the basis of Einstein’s work, we can also picture gravity as an invisible web, linking everything and holding the universe together. What happens when that web is disturbed?
Consider again the illustration of the rubber sheet, and suppose that an object on the sheet is suddenly jostled to and fro. The vibrations generated in the sheet will disturb nearby objects. Similarly, if a star were violently “jostled,” ripples in space, or gravity waves, might be generated. Planets, stars, or galaxies caught in the path of a gravity wave would experience space itself contracting and expanding—like a rubber sheet vibrating.
Since these waves have not as yet been detected, what proof do scientists have that Einstein’s theory is correct? One of the best indications comes from a star system known as a binary pulsar. This consists of two neutron stars in orbit about a common center, with an orbital period of about eight hours. One of these stars is also a pulsar—it emits a radio pulse as it rotates, like the sweeping light beam from a lighthouse. Thanks to the precise timing of the pulsar, astronomers can map the orbit of the two stars with great precision. They find that the time of orbit is slowly diminishing in exact agreement with Einstein’s theory that gravity waves are being emitted.
On the earth, the effects of these waves are infinitesimal. To illustrate: On February 24, 1987, astronomers spotted a supernova—a star undergoing a spectacular transformation, blazing forth with the brilliance of millions of suns as it blew off its outer layers. Gravity waves produced by the supernova would cause, on the earth, a shiver in dimension of only a millionth of the diameter of a hydrogen atom. Why so small a change? Because the energy would be spread out over a vast distance by the time the waves reached the earth.”
Cosmologists estimate that about 95 percent of what makes up the universe is invisible & undetectable by scientific instruments. They divide this strange entity into two categories , dark matter and dark energy . The nature of these remains unknown’
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Gravity is not material so there is no detector like a Geiger counter. It is “detected” by measuring its strength and that’s exactly what a weight scale does. The moment you see the needle move, it’s reporting the gravitational attractive force between the earth and whatever object you place on it.
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I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for, but in ‘Packing for Mars’, by Mary Roach, she describes scientists measuring gravity on a plane that swoops down into a nose dive and replicates different amounts of gravity. They do this to test things that astronauts will be using (and etc.). I’d give you a better description, but it’s been a while since I read it.
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The tide. We need something analogous to the photon multiplier tube, but responsive to the Higgs boson or the Higgs field. The difficulty is in the separation of signal from the noise, and the small magnitude of the signal. The relationship of the graviton ( unknown at this time ) , and the Higgs may allow us a method of detection.
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Gravity is a force, and forces accelerate matter , F = ma , an object’s velocity can be measured
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Fall down, you’ll sure detect it in a bad way.
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yup sure can if i jump off a cliff i will fall. therefore i detected it. 😛
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Yes it can, it pulls on all matter