Question by Lazerfish: What is the relationship between magnetism and gravity?
Is it possible that gravity and magnetism are the same force, but at different “wavelengths”? Also, could “dark energy” be realted to gravity and magnetism in the same way?
Best answer:
Answer by blind_chameleon
Gravity and magnetism are different and separate forces. Gravity acts between any two objects having mass.Two objects get pulled towards each other if they have mass.
Magnetism can attract and repel depending on polarity. Forces don’t have wavelengths (even with quotes).
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
There is no relationship as far as I know.
Your instinct is right on! Gravity, magnetism, nuclear force are all really the same force. It’s just that under the current condition of the Universe (i.e. very cool), the one-force manifest itself in 4 different aspects: gravity, EM, strong and weak forces. But back during the Big Bang (i.e. very very hot), there was only one force.
However, these forces are not different now due difference in wavelengths. That’s because each different type of force has their own corresponding virtual particle or wave; hence just specifying the wavelength isn’t enough. You have to specify the type of particle or wave. For example, gravity has gravity waves or graviton, EM force has photons or EM waves, strong force has gluons or gluon waves.
Dark energy currently is hypothesized to be due to Einstein’s “Cosmological Constant”, or vacuum energy. That is energy that exists and fills all of space everywhere, and is a basic property of empty space.
It’s certainly possible, but the generally accepted view in modern quantum physics is that gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force are the four basic types of “energy,” each expressed through various types of particles (leptops, quarks, anti-quarks…) .
Good questions! Taking the General Relativity Theory as formulated by Einstein, gravity is merely the observable effect of the curvature of space. This would seem to suggest that gravity is not a force at all.
However, I have seen other formulations where gravity is represented by gravitons. I believe the String Theories use this formulation as part of the attempt to reconcile Relativity with Quantum Physics. Interestingly enough, the graviton would be the only “particle” that would not be permanently fixed to our 3-brane(particles are actually represented by tiny strings in String Theory, hence the name, and a brane is, well, it is more or less the 3 Dimensional Universe as we can see it).
If we treat the graviton as a real particle (its existence will not be provable for some time yet), and use the Standard Big Bang Theory, then the graviton was the first force particle to split off from the others. This split occured at the Planck time, which is about 10 to the -43 power seconds after the Bang. Be aware, though, that the Standard Big Bang Theory is being brought into question, and other theories are beginning to take its place. Most still beleve that the graviton exists and was the first to split off from the others, but some do not.
Dark energy is not yet universally accepted to exist, but the evidence seems to be pretty clear to me. The most popular way to deal with Dark energy is to reintroduce the Cosmological Constant from Einstein. In other words, dark energy is just what gravity (or space if you like) does. The problem with explaining dark energy with a Cosmological Constant is the constant used must be perfectly chosen, otherwise the theory predicts things that do not actually happen. Not exactly the kind of thing to inspire confidence.
Another way to look at dark energy is to call it Quintessence, and this would be quite like you suggested in your question: a 5th force. I personally do not like this theory for a number of reasons, including an even greater amount of coincidence than the Cosmological Constant.
But here is a VERY interesting theory that might explain dark energy: the Holographic Principle. The main gist of this principle involves entropy and goes something like this.
Say you have a certain region of space, and it has a certain amount of entropy. Take a second region of space, and it will also have a certain amount of entropy. Now add those regions together, and tell me what the total entropy is: easy, just add the two entropy values. This does seem to work…until we look at black holes. A black hole represents the greatest amount of entropy a region of a particular size can have. Let’s look at our 2 regions again, but this time, let’s say they are black holes. It turns out that the entropy of a black hole is related to its surface area and not its volume. So now we can no longer just add our entropy values; either the combined area has to grow (2+2=5?), or the entropy will be less than the sum of the two entropy values (2+2=3?) Obviously something weird is going on here.
This is the nature of the Holographic Principle. Entropy represents, in a way, the most “stuff” that can actually be going on in a region of space. If entropy is related to the surface of a region, and not its volume, then our reality could be completely described using a surface rather than a volume. Our observations of 3 dimensions would only be a good approximation of the actual 2 dimensional universe. Flat World indeed. With this principle, dark energy more or less disappears as a necessity.
I believed you got magnetism and grativity confused. In grativitational pull you need too bodies that possessed mass. In magnetism, mass is not required for north and south pole attraction. These two things have very different properties. Learn more about magnetism and electricity and you’ll see why.
I beleive that gravity and magnetism are unified by means of the Space-time Vaccuum energy, and the electric field.
In order for any particle of mass to occupy space-time, the particle must expell a certain amount of vaccuum energy from spacetime into the mass-energy realm.
If massed particles did not do this, the fluctuations of vaccuum energy, however small would disrupt the structure and stabilty of mass.
the first expression of this expelled energy is the electric field. then, the electric field induces the magnetic field.
This coupling of spacetime and the electric field is embodied by the work of GLASHOW, noble prize winner for electroWeak unification.
We know the electricity and magnetism are related because we can calculate that relationship. Maxwell’s equations are an excellent predictor of behavior involving electric and magnetic fields. For convenience, we speak of an electric force because it’s the force experienced by a charge in an electric field, no matter what else is going on. But we currently have no way to relate that to gravity. The perfect TOE (Theory of Everything) would explain all of the known forces, but we don’t have one.
Wavelength doesn’t apply to gravity. Even if the hypothetical ‘gravity wave’ does exist, how do you define the wavelength of a single wave?