Celestial How fast is gravity? - Fermilab

Housecarl

On TB every waking moment

How fast is gravity?​

RT 10:12
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa_hLtPIE1s&ab_channel=Fermilab


652,515 views Nov 30, 2022
Gravity is the most familiar of the known forces, but it seems to be eternal and unchanging. However, scientists believe that gravity moves with a specific speed. In this video, Fermilab’s Dr. Don Lincoln describes a fascinating observation that definitively measures the speed of gravity.

Fermilab physics 101:

Fermilab home page:
 

tech

Veteran Member
Given that gravity is a force, it may exert its force on an object creating acceleration...not the same as having a velocity of its own. The longer gravitational force acts upon an object, the faster the object's velocity.

The force that gravity exerts is dependent on the mass of the object said gravity is coming from...more mass = more gravitational force = faster acceleration.

It's not rocket science...oh yeah, I guess it is ;)
 

Landcruiser

Contributing Member
The neat thing about society today is the rate of transfer of information. We are able to learn faster because we can stack the learning of our forefathers and our contemporarys at a rate that was unheard of even a few decades ago.... so gravity is not changing... but our understanding of it is gaining depth at an ever increasing rate....almost like a constant force in nature is causing us to have an increasing rate of acceleration giving our information and knowledge accumulation velocity closer and closer to the speed of light....
 

night driver

ESFP adrift in INTJ sea
The neat thing about society today is the rate of transfer of information. We are able to learn faster because we can stack the learning of our forefathers and our contemporarys at a rate that was unheard of even a few decades ago.... so gravity is not changing... but our understanding of it is gaining depth at an ever increasing rate....almost like a constant force in nature is causing us to have an increasing rate of acceleration giving our information and knowledge accumulation velocity closer and closer to the speed of light....
I saw what you did there.....
 

tanstaafl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
It's not our understanding of nature that changes, it's nature changing as our understanding evolves. The ancient Greeks could easily have measured the difference between pi = 3.00 and pi = 3.14... but didn't. Clearly the more sophisticated we become, the more digits get added to pi! ;)
 

jed turtle

a brother in the Lord
Recent investigations into the ancient artifacts left behind in the land of Egypt has left many researchers to conclude that the beliefs of Egyptologists about the age and methods of construction are wrong and wrong in massive ways.

The latest understandings is that there was a previous era of high civilization that collapsed and the follow on -what we call “ancient Egypt” was merely perhaps survivors of the previous civilization that took what they managed to retain and re-purposed the stone artifacts of the older civilization, much like the Muslims in Cairo after an earthquake wrecked their city who then scavenged the limestone cover blocks off the Great Pyramid to rebuild their city.

as Solomon said along time ago, ”there is nothing new under the sun”. Individually we mature, often grow wise and full of facts and understanding, and then when we are finally knowledgeable enough to be usable to our society... we die. A great tragedy that, it would seem. All those thousands of years it took to grasp the idea that the universe does not orbit around a flat earth...
and then faster and faster we understand invisible things of great import, until our leaders get persuaded to trust some buffoon who blows civilization up .......again.

Press pause, wait out another ice age, Lose all memory of the preceding Age, and start over.
 
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Delta

Has No Life - Lives on TB
The speed of gravity is certainly something to ponder during the interval between the slip and the landing.
 

Landcruiser

Contributing Member
I'm going full nerd and I apologize ... IIRC...
Gravity is a force, not a velocity. That force is a constant pull, acting on your mass, and is often expressed as a constant acceleration of 9.81 meters per second squared on the surface of the earth by use of the equation F=ma which is a simplified application of Newton's law of universal gravitation. The velocity of which you fall is entirely dependent on time (as long as you zero out the minor affects of wind resistance etc) as the acceleration due to gravity is constant.


But the heavier you are technically it may hurt more when you hit something not moving...
 

FaithfulSkeptic

Carrying the mantle of doubt
The speed of gravity is certainly something to ponder during the interval between the slip and the landing.
Only up to a certain age. Beyond that, you're mind isn't quick enough to know what's going on until after you hit the ground.
 
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