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Questions tagged [gravity]

Gravity is an attractive force that affects and is affected by all mass and - in general relativity - energy, pressure, and stress. Prefer newtonian-gravity or general-relativity if sensible.

34 votes
8 answers
9k views

Why does Roy Kerr claim that the Kerr black hole does not contain a singularity?

In a preprint posted on the arXiv, Roy Kerr claims that there is a widespread misunderstanding related to the singularity inside the black hole that bears his name. Can anyone explain his argument in ...
noir1993's user avatar
  • 2,136
34 votes
6 answers
10k views

Is gravitational time dilation different from other forms of time dilation?

Is gravitational time dilation caused by gravity, or is it an effect of the inertial force caused by gravity? Is gravitational time dilation fundamentally different from time dilation due to ...
Jay's user avatar
  • 663
34 votes
3 answers
6k views

Can we run out of gravitational (tidal) energy?

I read an article on energy forms and sources that made me think. Energy comes from somewhere and is limited in various senses. It's most obvious for fuels: we burn coal and oil and at some point we'...
user985366's user avatar
34 votes
4 answers
8k views

How can we recover the Newtonian gravitational potential from the metric of general relativity?

The Newtonian description of gravity can be formulated in terms of a potential function $\phi$ whose partial derivatives give the acceleration: $$\frac{d^2\vec{x}}{dt^2}=\vec{g}=-\vec{\nabla}\phi(x)=\...
Beyond-formulas's user avatar
34 votes
6 answers
5k views

Could gravity be an emergent property of nature?

Sorry if this question is naive. It is just a curiosity that I have. Are there theoretical or experimental reasons why gravity should not be an emergent property of nature? Assume a standard model ...
Sklivvz's user avatar
  • 13.5k
34 votes
4 answers
14k views

Is there a fundamental reason why gravitational mass is the same as inertial mass?

The principle of equivalence - that, locally, you can't distinguish between a uniform gravitational field and a non-inertial frame accelerating in the sense opposite to the gravitational field - is ...
ravithekavi's user avatar
33 votes
3 answers
108k views

How is light affected by gravity?

Light is clearly affected by gravity, just think about a black hole, but light supposedly has no mass and gravity only affects objects with mass. On the other hand, if light does have mass then doesn'...
PriestVallon's user avatar
33 votes
8 answers
7k views

Why does no physical energy-momentum tensor exist for the gravitational field?

Starting with the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian $$ L_{EH} = -\frac{1}{2}(R + 2\Lambda)$$ one can formally calculate a gravitational energy-momentum tensor $$ T_{EH}^{\mu\nu} = -2 \frac{\delta L_{EH}...
Dilaton's user avatar
  • 9,581
32 votes
4 answers
22k views

Does gravity slow the speed that light travels?

Does gravity slow the speed that light travels? Can we actual measure the time it takes light from the sun to reach us? Is that light delayed as it climbs out of the sun's gravity well?
aepryus's user avatar
  • 1,011
32 votes
2 answers
2k views

What forces are at work causing sand to migrate to the centre of a spinning bucket of water? [duplicate]

A bucket is filled with water and a handful of sand. The water is then spun. Why and what forces are in play which cause the sand particles to congregate in the centre of the bucket?
Charles Hendry's user avatar
32 votes
3 answers
2k views

Has the gravitational interaction of antimatter ever been examined experimentally?

I know that the gravitational interaction of antimatter is expected to be the same as normal matter. But my question is, has it ever been experimentally validated? I think it would not be a trivial ...
peterh's user avatar
  • 8,247
32 votes
7 answers
5k views

Is it possible for a particle to decay via gravity?

Is it possible for a particle to decay via gravity? I know gravity is immensely weaker than the other forces, but all the other forces interact with particles. Do we need an understanding of quantum ...
Aravind Karthigeyan's user avatar
32 votes
3 answers
5k views

Why is there no gravitational magnetic field? (Or, is there?)

We can think that the electric field and the gravitational field operate similarly in the sense that the forms of their governing laws (namely, Coulomb's law and Newton's law respectively) are ...
user avatar
31 votes
4 answers
7k views

Why aren't the energy levels of the Earth quantized?

The Hamiltonian of the Earth in the gravity field of the Sun is the same as that of the electron in the hydrogen atom (besides some constants), so why are the energy levels of the Earth not quantized?...
Jacob's user avatar
  • 1,523
31 votes
5 answers
12k views

Artificial gravity on rotating spaceship?

One of the possible ways to simulate gravity in outer space is to have a rotating spaceship, so that the centrifugal force experienced provides a gravity-like force. My question is: shouldn't this ...
SuperCiocia's user avatar
  • 24.9k

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