Re: VRD- light and gravity velocities

Hello, Blanca.

First of all, you may wish to read Steve Carlip's paper on the speed of gravity. We really don't know just how fast gravity travels, but Carlip presents a good case for a finite speed of gravity propogation.

Assuming that gravity does travel at light speed, we can infer a thing or two about it. First, that there must be a "carrier" of gravity, or graviton, that travels in space. Second, that gravitons must be particles with no resting mass, just like photons. No particle with resting mass can reach light speed.

Can we link gravitons with electro-magnetism? We've been trying to for years.

Years ago particle physicists developed something called the standard model as a way to describe the universe. It contained four forces, electro-magnetic, strong nuclear, weak nuclear, and gravity. (The strong nuclear force is what holds atoms together, and the weak nuclear force is what causes radioactive decay.) The weak nuclear force was shown in the early 1990's to be a part of the electro-magnetic force, and the two forces are now refered to as the electro-weak force. The strong nuclear force and electro-weak are probably the same thing, too. This hasn't been proven yet, but the more the strong force is studied, the more a connection between the two seems likely.

That leaves gravity.

For 30 years Albert Einstein tried to link gravity with the other forces in the standard model. He never succeeded, possibly because he didn't recognize the significance of quantum mechanics and try to include it in his answer. Others have tried with quantum mechanics, and there are many different theories currently attempting to link gravity with e.m. String theory claims that everything is made up of tiny strings, and the vibrations of these strings cause all the forces in the standard model, just as music is caused by the vibration of guitar strings. Unfortunately, the math explaining string theory is so complicated that only a handful of people understand it. I'm not one of them, so I really can't make an educated opinion about string theory.

Another theory is stochastic electro-dynamics, a new offshoot of quantum mechanics. The idea behind it is that gravity and inertia are caused by fluctuations in the zero point energy field. Dr. Hal Puthoff has shown that Einstein's equation for gravity and inertia in general relativity is a derivitive of the Maxwell's zero point energy field equation. Pervious to this, the black-body radiation equation was shown to be derived from it, too, so those two unlikely phenomina have been linked together. In time, electro-magnetism may be added to the list. Personally, this is where I expect the link to be found. The only links I can find are pretty technical, but they're worth clicking here.

Another theory is the luxon theory. In a nutshell, it claims all matter is compressed, slowed-down light, and all forces (including gravity and e.m.) are manifestations of light. It's a very interesting theory, but there hasn't been much evidence of it offered yet.

There's another idea, and that is that gravity and e.m. aren't connected at all. I find this hard to believe. There are just too many coincidences that need to be explained by a gravity-e.m. link. You mentioned one of them, the speed of gravity equalling the speed of light. Another is the orbits of electrons around nuclei (e.m.) being spaced proportionally the same as planets orbiting the sun (gravity). A third is the fact that magnetic attraction and gravitational attraction both diminish at the same proportion, i.e., the inverse of the square of the distance between the objects. I feel there has to be a link.

I hope this answers your question,

Layne Johnson