coleslaw
01-07-2003, 09:05 PM
This is pretty funky stuff here. I'm sure most of you are probably only familiar with thinking of gravity in the classical Newtonian sense, so, when talking about the speed of gravity, you may scratch your heads. Regardless, the article (http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993232) describes the method used to make the calculation (using the known mass and velocity of Jupiter).
In general, the speed of gravity can best be described by an example similar to the one given in the article: if one were to place (or remove) a massive object one light year from the earth, the effect of that object's gravity would not be detected on earth for one year. Therefore, the speed of gravity is said to be equal to the speed of light.
One thing that I do not care for in experiments such as these is that the scientists, knowing already the expected theoretical values, can skew the presentation of the data to make it appear that said theory holds true. The speed of gravity was calculated to be 0.95 that of the speed of light with an experimental error of 0.25. This leads one to believe that the actual value may not truly be the speed of light, thus debunking that portion of Einstein's theory of relativity.
In general, the speed of gravity can best be described by an example similar to the one given in the article: if one were to place (or remove) a massive object one light year from the earth, the effect of that object's gravity would not be detected on earth for one year. Therefore, the speed of gravity is said to be equal to the speed of light.
One thing that I do not care for in experiments such as these is that the scientists, knowing already the expected theoretical values, can skew the presentation of the data to make it appear that said theory holds true. The speed of gravity was calculated to be 0.95 that of the speed of light with an experimental error of 0.25. This leads one to believe that the actual value may not truly be the speed of light, thus debunking that portion of Einstein's theory of relativity.