Towards a new test of general relativity?

European Space Agency ^ | 23 March 2006 | Staff

[PatrickHenry]

I donno, but this looks like it might be big. Very big.

[PatrickHenry]

SciencePing

An elite subset of the Evolution list. See the list's explanation at my freeper homepage. Then FReepmail to be added or dropped.

[ASOC]

Will this help get me 100 mpg in my old car by making it weigh less?

[Maynerd]

Big stuff indead. Looks like the existence of the elusive "graviton" has been confirmed.

[maine-iac7]

one hundred million trillion times larger

and that is how many 0's to the ? power - mind boggling

[bert]

I conclude from the above that E=MC10

[Publius]

It's one more example of extraterrestrial technology slowly leaked into our scientific world, just as lasers, microchips and superconducting solids have been leaked over the decades. This is the gravity-amplifying technology that drives extraterrestrial spaceships, or "UFO's" as we've been calling them over the years. This is the technology that will make space travel easy and affordable in the future.

(Hey, you don't think I make this stuff up, do you?)

[Quark2005]

Great article. This looks like it could be a Nobel Prize in the making, if the results turn out to be valid. (Note the very big 'if'. Just a hunch that they'll have trouble convincing a lot of reviewers that the effect isn't attributable to a systematic error without a lot more testing.)

[lafroste]

Whoo-Yah. I normally don't say things like this in a post, but read my novel. Sure it's only sci-fi, but the protagonist produces gravitational fields almost exactly as described here. It is the basis of the whole book.

Just one more cognitive leap to make: They aren't measuring gravity fields, they are measuring time fields.

flame suit on...

[Focault's Pendulum]

"This experiment is the gravitational analogue of Faraday's electromagnetic induction experiment in 1831.

This I understand.

By allowing force-carrying gravitational particles, known as the gravitons, to become heavier, they found that the unexpectedly large gravitomagnetic force could be modeled

This I don't. Could someone explain. I get the part about photons gaining mass....but I'm stuck on gravitons. I thought they were theoretical.

[RightWhale]

a ring of superconducting material rotating up to 6 500 times a minute

The magnets mounted on a bicycle wheel in my laboratory were headed toward this. Just a matter of rotating a hundred times faster and dropping the temperature four hundred degrees, and a few other minor details. There is a time for Michael Faraday, and this could be be that time.

[lafroste]

Perhaps this proves that they aren't theoretical.

[PatrickHenry]

It's not clear. The article says they used "Small acceleration sensors" to detect whatever it is they detected. I assume those are something like Robert Forward's mass detectors, but I'm guessing. Then they attribute their unexpectedly high readings to gravitomagnetism. It's a bit conjectural at this point. But if they've really detected something, it certainly requires an explanation.

[lafroste]

Stupid question department:

If I have a charge being conducted through a rotating superconductor, is there a rotational speed at which that charge is actually static?

[RightWhale]

big. Very big.

This should have happened in America, but we're simply losing our edge. Perhaps we can petition Congress to cut loose of some of the money they have stashed in the basement and kindle some interest in science.

[RightWhale]

They aren't measuring gravity fields, they are measuring time fields

Sure, but time is not a field. What it is, is hard to say, but field isn't it. It's more of a function of being on the surface of a hyperdimensional sphere.

[RightWhale]

Try it. Faraday would set it up and see what happened. Sometimes there are surprises.

[R. Scott]

Even if your car weighed less, I think it would still have the same mass so the same mpg.

[Maynerd]

I get the part about photons gaining mass....but I'm stuck on gravitons. I thought they were theoretical.

Not anymore!

[Focault's Pendulum]

Perhaps this proves that they aren't theoretical.

Thank you for that in depth explanation. Only kidding.

I'm looking forward to reading your book.

I'm really stuck on this. I just got finished figuring out string theory...and now this comes along.