On Wed, 18 Dec 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Article arguing that the speed of gravity may be infinite...
It has long been understood that orbits would not be stable if gravity
showed any detectable aberration (change in apparent direction with motion
of the observer), implying that either gravity's velocity is inordinately
high or else it does not propagate at all.
Orthodox general relativity says that gravity is a matter of the shape of
space -- it's not a form of radiation at all. There is no exchange of
radiation between Earth and Sun to keep Earth in its orbit; Earth is
moving through space curved by the influence of the Sun, and Earth
naturally follows a curved path as a result. (I oversimplify a bit.)
Gravity waves, aka gravitational radiation, carry *changes* in the
curvature of space. Relativity predicts that they move at the speed of
light, a prediction which has not yet been verified (although there is
some indirect evidence, like measurement of the energy loss of binary
pulsars, which agrees quite closely with relativity's predictions here).
If the name "metaresearch.org" hadn't made your bogometer twitch, by the
way, the name "Tom Van Flandern" at the top should. He's a frequent
advocate of, to put it politely, far-out theories. It's possible that
he will eventually be verifiably right about something, but that is not
the way to bet. Don't sell your relativity textbooks yet.
Henry Spencer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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