not the food?

And here I thought I had been losing weight. But no, apparently there is some uncertainty about the gravitational constant. Some recent measurements are somewhat different than previous ones. The newly agreed upon value will be lower than previously thought, and the uncertainty larger.

Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
red pill junkie's picture
Member since:
12 April 2007
Last activity:
3 hours 9 min

I've been thinking about something lately:

As the Earth travels around the Sun, and the Sun travels around the center of the Milky Way, could it be possible that —from time to time— our planet traverses areas of space more affected by the gravitational pull of celestial bodies? You know, passing through more "crowded" regions of the galactic neighborhood?

And if that is so, and Einstein tells us that Gravity affects Time, what could that mean to our reliability in our measuring instruments, or or own subjective perception of the flow of Time?

It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

Red Pill Junkie

Mordred's picture
Member since:
25 November 2009
Last activity:
18 weeks 6 days

That is a very interesting notion.
I would assume that astronomers would know about this if it really happens.. Or maybe the difference in gravitational pull is so little that it does not affect us in a meaningfull way.

red pill junkie's picture
Member since:
12 April 2007
Last activity:
3 hours 9 min

Or maybe the difference in gravitational pull is so little that it does not affect us in a meaningfull way.

That's quite possible that's the case, or have been the case since we've started measuring gravity —which hasn't been too long, truth be told ;)

It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

Red Pill Junkie

earthling's picture
Member since:
22 November 2004
Last activity:
2 weeks 6 hours

I don't know about the measurements. I would guess that most measurements would not be affected, in those cases where time varies the same for everything involved in the measurement. Mostly we measure close-by stuff, so the gravitational influences due to our current neighborhood in the universe isn't any different for the different parts.

As to human perception of time, that is so fuzzy that the uncertainties due to our own internal factors would drown out anything else.

I did a calculation many years ago, about the gravitational influence on a baby at birth. Assuming that the baby is delivered by a third person about 1 meter away, the gravitational influence of various celestial bodies on the baby was:

- Earth
- Moon
- 3rd Person
- rest of the universe

I don't know if I had all the numbers right, the Moon and 3rd Person was reasonably close, maybe 2 orders of magnitude or less.

What I think that means is that the timing influence on you personally, by far away celestial gravitational sources, would be substantially less than whether you stood next to a fat person, or were alone in a large room.

----
We are the cat.

red pill junkie's picture
Member since:
12 April 2007
Last activity:
3 hours 9 min

So we should mind our diet more than our possible crossing with a black hole. Fair enough {~_^}

It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

Red Pill Junkie

daydreamer's picture
Member since:
21 February 2009
Last activity:
21 hours 6 min

I think you nailed it on its head.

If one came in close enough so that its gravity was strong enough to make any difference then bye bye solar system. We'd be swapping planets every galactic cycle.

I suppose what this must mean is that even though there are a great many stars, the amount of space in the galaxy is rather large when compared to that. Actually I thought we were 2 galaxies combined.

As for the time dilation, we don't notice much from the sun or moon. Time doesn't dilate perceptibly when you drive past a mountain. I think we're requiring bigger scales here.

As an addon, when they say the universe is 13.6 billion years old have you ever wondered what they mean? After all time can be different in different places...

red pill junkie's picture
Member since:
12 April 2007
Last activity:
3 hours 9 min

As an addon, when they say the universe is 13.6 billion years old have you ever wondered what they mean? After all time can be different in different places...

True dat! :)

It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

Red Pill Junkie

Kathrinn's picture
Member since:
10 August 2004
Last activity:
22 hours 7 min

I have often wondered what causes time to slow down or speed up - I seem to be programmed somehow to notice these happenings.

When time slows down all usual external sounds seem to cease - particularly at night - no crickets, no cicadas, no nothing, almost to the point of weirdness at times.

Time can also 'go missing' for no apparent reason occasionally - sometimes an hour, or sometimes longer. This is something that at the time is not just noticed by me but by others I am with (and it's not connected to being abducted by aliens).

My brother told me that when 'things go silent' he is unable to receive short-wave radio.

I'd love to have some answers on this!

Regards, Kathrinn

red pill junkie's picture
Member since:
12 April 2007
Last activity:
3 hours 9 min

We are all probably familiar with the term "window area"; geographic zones where a plethora of weird events are reported.

In these window areas time anomalies are not uncommon. It would be very interesting to know why.

So maybe Time can be affected by things other than mass. Maybe a fat man cannot affect me that much if he gets close to me —unless he steps on my toe!— but what about an unusual surge of electromagnetic or geomagnetic energy? Energy is basically the same as Mass, right?

It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

Red Pill Junkie

Kathrinn's picture
Member since:
10 August 2004
Last activity:
22 hours 7 min

I've often wondered if the odd time effects were caused by an electromagnetic incident. In an area just 40 miles south of where I live many strange time and other effects occur - houses and roads are seen that aren't there, people get lost on roads they know well, time is lost or gained. Perhaps there is a massive magnetic anomaly in that area. This effect could easily extend to the town here.

If these things just happened to me I'd simply think I was weird (no comments please!). but they happen to others and sometimes to several folk at the same time, or something like a house-that-isn't-there will be seen by at least two people at different times. Once an incident even happened to my husband, and he'd be the greatest disbeliever in anything out of the ordinary!

Regards, Kathrinn

emlong's picture
Member since:
18 September 2007
Last activity:
20 hours 40 min

The time differences are quite small, but size has nothing to do with paradox and the magnitude of weird effects. The most minute disturbance can have relatvely large macro effects.

cnnek's picture
Member since:
28 June 2006
Last activity:
2 days 1 hour
red pill junkie wrote:

So maybe Time can be affected by things other than mass.... What about an unusual surge of electromagnetic or geomagnetic energy? Energy is basically the same as Mass, right?

Red Pill,

The equation E=Mc^2, Energy = Mass times The Speed Of Light Squared, proves that Mass and Energy are interchangeable and, as such, two different states of the same thing, like Liquid Water and Ice or Steam.

I'm very sensitive to the energy around me and to energy fluctuations and I'm sure that they have an effect on time. This effect is, however, difficult for us to perceive; but, it's not impossible for us to perceive!

What do you think?

cnnek

{You Can Teach People How To Think Critically Or What To Think; But, You Can't Do Both! It Is Better To Teach People How To Think Critically!!!}

red pill junkie's picture
Member since:
12 April 2007
Last activity:
3 hours 9 min

I'm also sensitive to electromagnetic interference. The "buzzing" of energy-saving light bulbs and cell phone chargers make me crazy —specially if I'm trying to read. I don't know if it's a handicap or an advantage.

It's not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me...
It's all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

Red Pill Junkie

cnnek's picture
Member since:
28 June 2006
Last activity:
2 days 1 hour

Red Pill,

I can feel energy around me and energy going through my body. I know that it sounds strange; but, it's true. In my case, energy comforts me and relaxes me among other things.

What do you think?

cnnek

{You Can Teach People How To Think Critically Or What To Think; But, You Can't Do Both! It Is Better To Teach People How To Think Critically!!!}

undrgrndgirl's picture
Member since:
9 February 2009
Last activity:
5 weeks 5 days

george ure over at urbansurvival.com (associated with halfpasthuman.com and the web bot project) has had some comments on measurement anomalies reported by his readers in the last few weeks/months...