Re: Unified Field Theory
Area: Physics
Posted By: David Barlow, Private individual, Grad education in Physics/Astrophysics and Comp. Support
Date: Tue Mar 4 10:21:31 1997
Message ID: 851131270.Ph
Matthew
simply put, Gravity is not a function of wavelength. I think that you have
slightly misunderstood a few points of how the basics of modern physics works.
Specifically what constitutes the wavelength and velocity of an object.
To amend your statements,
1. Every object has rest mass
2. Every rest mass creates a Gravitational Field.
3. A mass may be considered to equate to an energy E by E=m*c*c. This energy may
be considered to have a Wavelegth through E=h-bar*lambda/2*pi, DeBroglie Wave Equation.
4. An object not being acted on by a force continues at the same velocity
or at rest in its frame of reference
5. An object being acted on by a force will accelerate.
6. Acceleration and Gravity are indistguishable - principle of Equivalance.
7. Certain unique Astrophysical events are thought to create Gravitational
Waves.
8. At near light speed the relativistic mass of an object increases, but not
its rest mass.
9. A light wave emitted by this object will be red-shifted/or blue-shifted
depending on your frame of reference, but will be unaltered in the frame of
the object. The DeBroglie wave length is unaltered by relativistic corrections.
Life gets a bit more compicated when dealing with Quantum Mechanics though.
10. Gravity is unaltered by high velocities.
To answer your points fully would take a few major lectures in Relativity and
fundamental Quantum Mechanics, I would suggest you read a few books on this
if you ever have a spare rainy day. I will try and explain the above points
as best I can though.
I suspect your fundamental problem is not yet having studied Relativity. So
a quick overview may help. Every object has a mass. This mass `bends' space around it, this is what is
felt as Gravity, the bending of space. (Look in the Physics Archives for a
fuller explanation). When the mass is at rest it can be considered to have an
inherent energy given by E=mc^2.
According to Special Relativity if the object has a large velocity its mass
increases according to the Lorentz Transform and its new potential energy is
given by (off the top of my head), U^2=m^2*c^4+0.5*m*v^2, where U^2 means U squared. But what
do we mean by velocity here. Velocity with respect to what? Lets say we are
both on space ships travelling at near light speed in opposite directions and
we both measure some object travlling in some direction. We would both disagree
on that objects velocity and hence its mass, and hence the Gravity it
exerts on things. The same goes for Time, how people measure time depends
on their Relative velocities, we could not even agree on what Time it is in
my analogy. Obviously this is ludicrous. Observors have to agree on
what they see. Relativity is all about translating how different observors
see things.
One of the major points of Relativity is that all things move relative to each
other. You can consider yourself to be at rest and every one else moving.
So when calculating a mass, you measure its rest mass after correcting for
velocity differences. This rest mass is what causes the Gravitational Field,
not the Relativistic Mass. Also, Gravity is due to the energy stored in space
itself as a result of it being bent by that mass. Another major assumption
of Relativity is that the laws of Physics are the same to all observors,
regardless of velocity and Acceleration.
As a wave of wavelength lambda has an energy given by the DeBroglie equation above.
It is possible to work backwards and say that a mass has an effective
wavelength. The interpretation of that is Quantum Machanics and has little
to do with Relativity. Grand Unified Theories are to do with equating
Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.
your statement about wavelength changing with velocity is I think related to
Red-Shifting. I would reccomend reading up on that.
Apologies if this is a very sketchy answer and is more a series of statements
than explanations. It is just that these subjects are very, very large and
much work has been done in them already.
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