It is an odd thing that one finds, with respect to just about any subject, in that the truth of any matter is commonly cloaked behind an array of terminology built around different or differing viewpoints.
In the world of science and even theoretical physics, this same phenomenon holds true and pervades (as well as interferes with) understanding. For this reason, I have learned that building an understanding of any subject from the viewpoint of one person carries with it “prejudices”, “hopes”, and “biases”.
With that in mind, the truth of any subject matter can eventually be revealed if enough dimensionality and uniqueness are part of the overall equation.
Terminology, I have found, is “key to understanding” and understanding is “key to advancement” in addition to a “relaxed” and “open” mind.
For that reason, as you read the rest of this small report, I strongly suggest that you get yourself a strong alcoholic drink and get comfortable because, I am about to give you a crash course in the physics of both deep space-time and beyond and I need you relaxed.
By the time you are done reading this (even as short as it is), the line between science and philosophy will begin to blur considerably. So just stay stay calm and stay the course and you will be fine.
If you have your drink, go ahead and drink it (all of it) and then let’s begin.
Interestingly, there is a certain “assumption” that is fundamental with respect to our current “belief” of what “exactly” gravity is.
Since the days of Sir Isaac Newton, humanity has referred to the force of gravity as one of “attraction” or one that “draws” “massive objects” together. Such a viewpoint, as you will see, although true to appearance, is “misleading” at best. To understand the true nature of gravity, one really needs to have a solid handle on a variety of abstract concepts: Time-Space, Time-Space Fabric, the Beginning of Time-Space, General Relativity, Mass as Information, Dark Energy, Wave Functions, The Higgs Boson, The Higgs Field, Frequency and Amplitude Modulation, plus a few more. Don’t worry, I am going to build this argument in your mind from the ground up using simple illustrations.
Whether you realize it or not, empty space is something. The “absense of something” is in itself “something”, namely, “the absense of something” (thanks Nico).
Confused? Don’t be. “The absense of something” simply means that “the something” that really “is” there is “something” that you just can’t see. But, just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean that it is not there. Got it? Good.
Whenever you look into outer space, it may appear “empty” between the planets and stars and in areas where there is no “gas” or “dust”. Rest assured, however, that there is indeed something there. There is still some “medium” through which “information” travels in many different forms such as “ultraviolet radiation” or perhaps a “magnetic field”. Both of the aforementioned examples are forms of “information relay” that attests to “something” being where there is seemingly “nothing”.
The “something” that is there that is “allowing transport” to this “information” is what some have called the “fabric of space-time” (or time-space, whichever you prefer).
The fabric of time-space is a fundamental concept with respect to the “reality” that YOU are aware of.
Thinking of time-space in the terms of a three-dimensional “fabric” will prove to be very useful as we proceed to the answer the question: What is gravity?
Now it should be noted that there are a few terms being used to describe this phenomenon in scientific reference such as: “time-space”, “time-space fabric”, and “the Higgs field”. Although the Higgs field is referred to in a slightly different way, more as a “property of time-space” referred to as “dark energy” in retrospect, the two concepts, as you will see are almost completely interchangeable.
That being said, the below illustration is a representation of the three dimensions of “space” that we are familiar with. These three spatial coordinates form the “reality” that we are familiar with and that we move around in. Understanding the fact that “matter” or “mass” or “mass-energy” (from galaxy super-clusters down to sub-atomic particles and even the “quantum foam”) moves around within this framework in relation to itself gives the “perception” of “linear time”.
Now, imagine that the distance of each coordinate above (X, Y, and Z) were all the same distance from the origin, namely, the Planck length, or the distance at which the force of gravity becomes strong.
That distance is thought to be about 16.162 x 10^-36 meters, an unimaginably small number. In other words the representation above would be so small that we simply could never see it because it is smaller than even atoms being that the “nuclei” of atoms are “built” from a framework at this scale.
“Time-space” or the “three dimensional fabric of time-space” would therefore appear like this: See PDF below…
As you can see, we now have a three dimensional fabric built from the three coordinates assigned above. As far as we know, this fabric extends beyond the edges of our universe indefinitely and could even contain perpendicular (very different) or parallel (very similar) universes to our own.
In a very odd way, parallel or perpendicular universes under this model could even exist in the exact same three dimensional space and never even be aware of each others other than interaction through each others gravitational forces. Confused? Don’t be. Let me show you what it would look like.
As you can see in the illustration above, there are “two sets” of three dimensional spatial coordinates. We have f(x, y, z) and f(x’, y’, z’). Noteworthy is the fact that these can be based around two differing fundamental units of length.
F(x, y, z) can be based around the Plank length of our universe: 16.162 x 10^-36 meters. F(x’, y’, z’) could then be based around a Plank’ length of some other distance such as: 16.162 x 10^-33 meters…
What effect would this have on these two universes? Simple. They simply wouldn’t see each other even if they both had the same origin. Mass-energy in the form of wave functions could exist in the exact same place in both universes and not interact at all other than through warping of the fabric (a.k.a. gravity).
This exact same principle allows us to have multiple radio stations and things like broadband cable.
(Side Note: If one could transpose the wave information that makes up their mass-energy to the Plank length of the universe of Plank’, then they could easily (theoretically) travel faster then the speed of light (by several orders of magnitude depending on what Plank length they chose: Plank’, Plank”, Plank”’) even possibly with conventional thrust in a universe with a Plank length of 10^3 (for example) longer than ours…think about how tsunamis travel faster than traditional waves through the ocean.)
It is interesting to note that the aforementioned scenario requires the following 10 space-time dimensions all sharing the same time-space fabric: Point of Origin, X, Y, Z, Time, Point of Origin’, X’, Y’, Z’, Time’
Congratulations! You are now a multi-verse theorist! Weird, huh? How does it feel? Let’s continue.
Now that we understand that the fabric of the “massless-space-time” universe is made up of three spatial coordinates we can now add to it a fundamental and necessary component or property, Einstein’s “dark energy” or the “Higgs Field” as it is now called by some being that Peter Higgs decided to rename it after himself for some strange reason and we all went with it. What?!?
“Dark energy” or the “Higgs Field” is simply a fundamental wave function introduced into the fabric of time space that is spread evenly through out, or at least before mass-energy is introduced.
Wave energy, if it were added to the three dimensional time-space fabric above would end up looking like this: See PDF below…
This “dark energy” (or “Higgs Field”) enhanced time-space fabric is the fabric into which new information can now be injected so as to form “mass” or “mass-energy” as we recognize it.
Interestingly, the fact that the “dark energy” of the “Higgs field” (the fundamental unit of which is the “Higgs Boson” or a single unit of “dark energy” which can be mathematically related to the cosmological constant) pervades the time-space fabric introduces a very important quality to it, that being the fact that it (time-space fabric) is flexible and stretchable (thanks to the “dark energy/Higgs field/Higgs Boson”), a revelation that Albert Einstein helped us all to appreciate the necessity and importance of in the terms of general relativity. Keep reading.
If you haven’t realized it by now, it should be noted that both the fabric of time-space and the dark “wave energy” that filled it PRECEDED the universe that we know and love.
It wasn’t until “some event” (roughly 13.75 billion years ago in terms of “linear time” as we understand it) injected with “unprecedented magnitude” “information” into the “fabric” of time-space itself.
Fortunately for us, the “fabric of time-space” was “tough enough” to withstand that “injection” of “information in the form of mathematically reducible wave functions” in the form of a singularity around the order of a Plank length, assuming it was injected as a singularity.
Additionally, we are also fortunate that time-space was flexible and stretchable enough and there was enough “slack” in the fabric itself (thanks to “dark energy”) to assist in the “prevention” of any potential “tearing or ripping” of the fabric itself when this new “super pack” of information was forcefully injected into the fabric. A big “bang” (for lack of a better “cave man physics” term) of sorts or an explosion of new information that would expand rapidly and eventually cool and mathematically express itself in the form of the fundamental building blocks of matter or “mass-energy” as we know it. It would have looked something like this:
As you can see, time-space was, for a brief instant, a super-hot tangled mess (or at least we would have recognized it as such). Then it expanded and cooled.
Now, the effect(s) of gravity as we understand it has/have been very successfully calculated by Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.
Albert Einstein (and an effect known as “gravitational lensing” where light bends around massive objects) specifically made us aware of the fact that the fabric of time-space was flexible or stretchable with his theory of “General Relativity” which helped us to understand the fact that time-space can stretch (or change in density when viewed in three dimensional terms).
When a massive object moves through the fabric of time-space what is really happening is “information in the form of wave functions” is simply moving through the fabric itself.
A very simple analogy is a wave moving through the open sea far from shore. The water moves up and down as the wave passes by, but what is really moving along is the energy or information. The water itself actually stays in the same general area. The same is true with “mass” or “matter” or “mass-energy” as it is traditionally understood. It is simply information moving through the fabric of time-space, just as waves move through water.
However, it should be noted that anywhere information exists, regardless of where it is, the fabric of time-space has to stretch towards is so as to accommodate it (the slack taken up by information, that is) by giving it slack. Think of mass-energy as knotting up the fabric of space-time like massive “balls of yarn”. This “slack” is given to it by the Plank length “waves” of “dark energy” that stretch and flatten so as to “accommodate” the “information” or “mass-energy” moving through its area. If dark energy didn’t exist, then the fabric of time-space would have been too tight to accommodate it.
The same thing would happen in parallel universes, a phenomenon that would reveal itself as gravitational lensing in our universe with no apparent “object” or “mass” or “mass-energy” inside of its event horizon.
It must be mentioned that the concepts of general relativity viewed through the lens of quantum mechanics, or the study of wave functions at the plank length have proven to be considerably difficult.
That being said, my thanks go to Leonard Susskind of Stanford University for providing us with string theory. To say that string theory provides us with a framework through which to join GR and QM is an understatement at best. You gotta love mathematicians.
But this a layman’s guide to understanding gravity, so well skip the QM lecture and get straight to the point.
So lets put this all together. But first, I need you to do something. I need to you clear your head of one viral concept that has pervaded human thinking since Newton. Even Einstein fell for it, but from Saturday, April 14th, 2012 onward we are going to come to a startling new conclusion.
Gravity is NOT a force of attraction. The thought and teaching that gravitation is a force of attraction has hinder human understanding of this force for hundreds and possibly even thousands of years now.
So let’s go ahead and (e)ffect a paradigm shift in our understanding.
Rather than being a force of attraction, gravity is actually a force of propulsion (or repulsion) in that it is “a resulting property of time-space as a function an imbalance (of sorts) in the density of dark energy” between two points in the time-space fabric.
What does this mean? Simple. It means that if a massive body exists at any point within the space-time fabric, then any small body of mass will be pushed along from areas of higher dark energy density to lower dark energy density. Since massive objects “selfishly” hold on to the “slack” given to them by dark energy available in the fabric of time-space, one will find that immediately surrounding the “massive object” there will be a sphere of increasingly low amplitude and frequency dark-energy-time-space resulting in the aforementioned movement of the smaller object towards the larger one. That is gravity.
Back to the analogy of waves moving through the sea. Imagine you are in a small raft with no paddles in the middle of the sea. In simple terms you will just sit there bobbing in the waves and perhaps drift a little due to currents or winds that gently blow you around.
Now image that you drift close to a small tropical island. What happens? The waves change in their size and shape and begin to have an immediately noticeable change in the way that they affect you raft.
Once you get close enough to the island, the waves (instead of bobbing you up and down) actually push you toward the shore. In many ways, gravity is dark energy working very much like waves of the sea.
Remember how we said that “dark energy” or the “Higgs field” or the fundamental unit of “dark energy” or the “Higgs Boson” become stretched and flattened towards a massive body when a massive body of wave function information enters its area? This stretching and flattening reveals itself in two ways: amplitude modulation and frequency modulation as such:
There are two event horizons depending on the amount of mass creating the “dark energy/Higgs field” imbalance and resulting change in amplitude and frequency of the “dark energy” itself. The first is the one we are all familiar with and that is the boundary of the gravitational force itself which, for all we currently know, is infinite in distance. The inner event horizon, if there is enough mass to result in the formation of a “black hole”, will result in an amplitude and frequency that will actually trap visible electromagnetic radiation.
Everyone teaches that this is a function of “escape velocity”. Rather, it is a function of “dark-energy-amplitude-and-frequency”.
So what does this all mean? It means that dark energy pushes objects in areas of “high-dark-energy-density” to areas of “low-dark-energy-density” much like air from areas of high barometric pressure pushes into areas of low barometric pressure. Or, perhaps a better way to put it would be to say: Gravity is the force that “naturally” pushes mass-energy phenomena from areas of “high-amplitude-high-frequency-dark-energy” to areas of “low-amplitude-low-frequency-dark-energy”, the fundamental unit of which is the Higgs Boson. Its as simple as that. Its a good thing too. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to sit here and read this and the oxygen that you are breathing would float off into outer space-time.
So does this mean that we can get those anti-gravity cars promised in all of those “Popular Mechanics” magazines?
Not necessarily. We first have to prove the existence of the “fundamental unit of dark energy” (commonly referred to as the Higgs Boson in the media). Happening now.
Once we do that, then we need to figure out how to generate an “anti-dark-energy” field.
This type of energy field will be challenging, because it will have to dynamically match both the amplitude and frequency of stretched dark energy at an angle exactly perpendicular to the “origin-al plane” so as to cancel it out (which will also be a function of the distance from the origin) at the Plank length of our specific universe.
The problem is that we only know about the Plank length mathematically. Currently, we are far from being able to manipulate time-space at that level.
This is going to be a tough egg to crack and when/if we finally do, it will only be for our universe.
However, once we figure out how to do it here, in this universe, applying it to any “same origin” parallel universe will simply require a multiplier.
So in short: First we have to verify that this is what gravity really is, then we have to transpose our information to a parallel universe of a plank length several orders of magnitude greater than ours, then we can travel faster than light. Then we would be getting somewhere.
Remember, ALL of this hinges on our ability to manipulate the fabric of time-space at the Plank^x length. And this will require a lot of energy and a lot of control. Think: LHC.
There are no ideas about how to do this yet, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the secret to all of this will be found in the nodes of time-space, not the fabric’s strings. Unfortunately, at the current time, there is no research focusing on the nodes of time-space that I am aware of.
Thanks for reading and welcome to the “real” reality and no, this is not science fiction, this is as “real as it gets.
Mark T H
Here is a link to the PDF with poorly drawn illustrations:
http://thebitbot.com/download/What_Gravity_Really_Is.pdf