On Oct 24, 2009, at 4:36 AM, Roarty, Francis X wrote:
Horace,
I can't find a good citation on this but there seems to be A LOT
of conflicting views regarding the way mass "sums" or as you
mentioned " shell mass outside that radius sums to zero",
specifically "when" and "where" the summing occurs (in the medium
or in the matter). If the summing occurs in the matter one would
assume it is being pulled equally in all directions by a larger
quantity of gravity and therefore feel weightless but have higher
dilation than on the surface. Wikipedia seems to support this view
but the majority of the forums lean toward your position.
Best Regards
Fran
From Wikipedia Gravitational time dilation is the effect of time
passing at different rates in regions of different gravitational
potential; the lower the gravitational potential (closer to the
center of a massive object), the more slowly clocks run. Albert
Einstein originally predicted this effect in his theory of
relativity and it has since been confirmed by tests of general
relativity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_time_dilation
I can see why this is confusing. This is written from the point of
view of two non-overlapping masses. It could have been better stated
as; "From Wikipedia Gravitational time dilation is the effect of time
passing at different rates in regions of different gravitational
field intensity; the higher the gravitational field intensity (closer
to the center of a massive object), the more slowly clocks run.
Albert Einstein originally predicted this effect in his theory of
relativity and it has since been confirmed by tests of general
relativity."
Masses do not react to potentials, they react to fields.
Gravitational fields superposition, just like Coulombic fields. The
gravitational field intensity is zero midway between two equal mass
objects. Gravitational field intensity is zero at the center of the
earth. If you are in a closed box at the center of a large planet
there is no way to tell you are not located out in space away from
any gravitational mass.
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
