Light travels at the speed of 3.8 lakh km/sec. similar is the speed of electicity. What is the speed of Gravitation or Magnetism ?
2007-12-20 00:11:21 · 11 answers · asked by kishan j 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The speed of light is the maximum speed for any signal to travel in the universe, including gravitation or magnetic fields.
2007-12-20 00:17:22 · answer #1 · answered by Charlie149 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the case of magnetism or gravity, they are 'field's. Gravitation can also be explained using waves. Light can be treated as electromagnetic wave, which has a velocity c. Magnetism can't be explained exactly like that... The gravitaional waves propagate with the same velocity as the speed of light though.
"physicists really know the answer to that. They know that the electromagnetic field is actually made of an enormous number of photons, but do virtual, massless photons make up the magnetic field, and how does one field affect other magnetic fields at a distance, and does the magnetic field travel at the speed of light like gravitational waves?"
2007-12-20 11:42:12 · answer #2 · answered by Deep B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
when the theory of gravity first came about it was believed that the influence of gravity fields was instantaneous. I believe it was Richard Feynman (or it might have been Enstein and his theory of general relativity i cant remember) who first realized that this is not the case. Gravity, in this scenario is kind of like a stone being dropped into a pond. the waves created by the stone take time to travel out to the shore. if you relate this idea to masses in space, if an object was suddenly created in space it would take time for the 'wave' to reach objects around it.
as for the speed is concerned, the 'particles' of gravity have no mass. Therefore it is able to travel at the speed of light.
As far as im aware the speed of gravity hasn't been measured in the lab. it all goes on astronomical observations and calculations.
Magnetism is much the same to my knowledge. All electromagnetism travel at the speed of light (as light itself falls into this catagory).
hope this helps, steve
2007-12-23 18:06:48 · answer #3 · answered by muppetonawave 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Any light wave has magnetic field attached to it. So Magnetic field also travels at speed of light. Now according to
E= m *(C)square formula all the waves has weight attached to it. so Gravity also travels at speed of light. [However I think gravity is Omni present.]
2007-12-20 08:26:07 · answer #4 · answered by dhaval_khamar 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Theory and experimentation has shown that gravity and magnetism both propagate at the speed of light.
2007-12-20 08:17:16 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
magnetism is the speed of light...
gravity is believed to be that too. there's some big experiments to try and measure gravity waves from say a binary star which may (may have already) provided evidence for it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_waves
2007-12-20 09:12:33 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
firstly, speed of light is much more than elec.
according to classical physics, gravity is waves, so they travel at the speed of sound. but later the theory was proved wrong by the general theory of relativity. it states the gravity is a result of space time curvature, so it doesnt have any speed. it is a kind of structure (eg sphere). relativity may seem stupid to u, but its true.
2007-12-20 10:03:35 · answer #7 · answered by Pranay C 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
same as speed of light.
2007-12-20 10:25:51 · answer #8 · answered by Joshua 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
'gravitation' and 'magnetism' are phenomena, so no speed involved!
2007-12-20 10:12:37 · answer #9 · answered by clavdivs 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Is this a math question?
2007-12-20 08:14:07 · answer #10 · answered by Dawne 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋