Gravity, Magnetism, and unified theory?

Question

I was just reading that there is a repulsive force to gravity that may be responsible for the universe expanding at an increasing rate. Doesn't this make Gravity Dipolar, like magnetism? Maybe the poles aren't oppositely aligned, and the force is a different type of field, but if that is right, it is an interesting point.

There is a quest to understand all these forces, to work them together into one "unifying theory." I believe the only way to get this theory to work is to try things that seem like scientific heresy, like finding the ways the gravity and magnetism are similar. Everyone is so convinced that gravity can't possibly have anything in common with magnetism, but they are looking for ways to unify them! That makes no sense!!! They have to be related somehow or there is NO way to unify the theories!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if there is a unified theory, wouldn't that allow us to mathematically see the relationship between the forces?

Thoughts?

But there IS a measurable repulsive force. That is what is baffling scientists right now and is the whole reason for the existance of the concept of "Dark Energy"

Here, check this out...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy

If the expansion is not related to gravity, then why this statement: "The exact nature of this dark energy is a matter of speculation. It is known to be very homogeneous, not very dense and is not known to interact through any of the fundamental forces other than gravity. " This is from the above Wikipedia article on dark energy.

Answer 1

Theoretically it might be of interest to find this, but practically, well, the earth (and other bodies) have essentially 0 charge and relatively high gravity, so no, I don't see where this would make a *practical* difference.

Have you read much about the unification strategies? The general idea is that the forces are the same at very high energy levels, like tiny fractions of a second after the Big Bang. The repulsive gravity appears to behave very differently - it is effective only over very large distances or at very high concentration. In fact, they now believe right at the Big Bang repulsive gravity started the expansion, for about 7 billion years afterwards gravity was the main force, slowing the expansion, but at that point the distances were large enough so that the repulsion took over, and now it is driving the expansion faster and faster.

Of course almost everyone is going to be looking to evolve the current theory. However, if you have a wild idea for another interpretation by all means follow it up. Einstein used some of his "wild ideas" to overthrow centuries-old concepts of time and space. Feynman's interpretation of electrons, while not replacing all other views, is recognized as a legitimate and valuable way of looking at things. Ideas are not good just because they are different, but they are not necessarily wrong either.

And yes, the goal of a unified theory is to show that all forces are aspects of the same single... thing. Just as electricity and magnetism were shown to be different aspects of the same thing, a successful GUT will draw connections between all the forces.

I strongly recommend Greene's book "The Fabric of the Cosmos" for understanding this topic.

Answer 2

The project of the greater physics community of the last 200 years or so has been to unify so-called fundamental forces, and it really has been successful to a significant extent. Maxwell's equations unified electricity & magnetism, which was unified with the weak nuclear force in the 1970's, which was unified with the strong nuclear force in the 1990's. Gravity has always been the odd force out, & has eluded the best attempts to unify it with other forces - after he finished his work on general relativity, Einstein essential spent the rest of his life trying to unify gravity with electromagnetism & failed horribly.

And yes, the idea behind the unification project is that mathematical relationships between the forces can be demonstrated, which means for gravity to be unified with the other forces, a mathematical relationship would have to be established.

However, I don't think that's a good rationale for the existence of repulsive gravity. If repulsive functioned in the same way as gravity on an inverse-square basis, it seems like it would have some measurable effects when large amounts of matter were in close proximity (i.e. on Earth) and not just in the accelerating dispersion of the Universe.

Answer 3

Yes there is a measurable repulsive force called the Cosmological Constant, which we are looking at to explain why expansion is increasing. It is not however related to gravity. It is the energy that is inherent in the vacuum of the universe, and is roughly equal to 10^-120, which is an incredibly small amount of energy, but taken in whole over vast spaces its appreciable, and has an effect on objects movements. The newest theories on gravity and unifying have to do with supergravity, and by extension, M-theory. Basically all M-theory is this...they found that the equations for string theory, and the equations for supergravity, are all different aspects of the same underlying equations...and thats where they are now, looking for those equations...

Answer 4

I have a unified theory in the works, just need the modeling to back it up. In my theory, all observed forces are some form of space-field interaction. It may be difficult to visualize this, so I came up with a thought experiment to help people understand. To understand how any of this works, you must first accept the idea that there is no such thing as a particle. Instead of particles, what we observe as particles is really the (center of mass) of a locally originating field. Why these fields exist is because they are in fact chaotic flaws in the space-field.
Now you might begin to say wtf is this guy on about.
It gets better, so here we go.
Imagine, if you will, that anything of mass is really a vibrating (unpredictably at this point) imperfection in space, and as a consequence, space flows towards this flawed field as a means to iron out the kinks. The real mechanism is that the kinks are what draw in space, but that is for another day. Damn, out of characters. Reply for more inf

Answer 5

Quantum gravity theories are trying to unify all 4 forces of nature but none has been completely successful yet. It is likely the case that the strengths of the forces could not be any different than what they are. There is likely a deep physical reason for this. But no one has found that reason yet.

Answer 6

I think the idea of strings was used to personify or quantise "something" so that the human mind could visualize something there that emits forces.

They (the physicist on the leading edge of this quest) didn't want to use the multidimensional concept. But that is what is coming out of all this.

THere are no particles. only points in space that emit forces. The forces don't come from strings but from the other dimensions. There is nothing in this universe but projections of force from other dimensions. Pretty wild eh??

This means that actually is no matter no material at all.
here's a website.

Answer 7

Everything is energy. Energy can not be created or destroyed. By
defenition, the energy that life has and that intelligence contains and
that patterns in general posses, has to be comming from somewhere. The
universe is not expanding or getting bigger, it is just getting more
organized and structured as life evolves and celestial bodies orient
themselves and gain structure. The new energy that they embody came
from a source the phisical mass and is thus observed as dark matter
because we can not SEE patterns, we can only observe them, nevertheless
they still have energy. This same energy was origionally sourced from
massive objects when they were random and did not have much
intellectual or structural energy. As matter takes shape or gains
structure, patterns, intelligence it appears to become cold, more
distant, bigger. The universe appears to be expanding, but it is not
really, where there was once matter, the same energy is not manifested
in intelligence as matter in between is disipitated. More energy in
intelligence is contained, as a result, less physical matter as well as
heat is observed. This theory also proves the existance of aliens and
extraterestrial life forms because we can not see or detect them, but
their energy from intelligence and the lack of energy in matter that
they have converted is absorbed. It is predicted that the universe will
continue to appear to be getting bigget and colder and the proportion
of dark matter and dark energy is increased as more matter is converted
into life.


The expansion of the universe is accelerating because life and
civilization is evolving at an ever increasing pace as the build up of
patterns is cululative as it is self replicatory.


Everything is energy. Patterns, structure or order is energy. Order in
the universe is increasing. This energy has to come from somewhere, it
is obserbed from physical energy or matter. Energy can not be created
or destroyed. Structure must be obtaining it's energy from somewhere.
Structure can't not have energy because it has potential and everything
is energy. It is very simple. Dark energy is not just alive, it is
life.