A new idea for gravity??

[MadScientist]

I was thinking about gravity and it seems to work on a flat plane spanning outwards from the equator of the central body.

Galaxies tend to be flat.

Our solar system appears flat.

Even the satellites orbitting planets appear to be on the flat plane outwards from the planets equator.

Not only that but they orbitting objects seem to follow the same rotation as the central body.

 

I even checked it with this nice interactive applet.

http://www.solarsystem.org.uk/planet10/

 

Doesn't that imply two things.

1 - That the gravity emitted by the central body is strongest at the equator.

2 - That gravity causes a drag/towing effect too.

 

I can accept that our moon either spun off from the Earth in its molten form or more likely the Earth got hit by another huge mass which knocked a chunk off forming the moon. Whichever way it went it could be coincidence that our moon happens to orbit towards the equator and also follows the rotation of the Earth, if the Earth rotates clockwise the moon follows it clockwise, depends if you're looking from underneath or above.

 

But they can't all be coincidences occuring from how each interaction was formed. Why should all the moons orbit their planets in this manner or all the planets orbit the sun in this manner or even all the solar systems orbit the supermassive black hole in this manner??

 

If you could stop the moon using enough opposite thrust wouldn't it start orbitting the Earth in exactly the same way as it did before.

 

And if a body/satellite is orbitting slightly off from the equator of the central body doesn't that mean it must be moving towards that equatorial orbit?? And the composition of the satellite and date of birth is the reason why it hasn't reached that orbit yet.

So if you could find out the composition of the planet and the satellite to find out the strength of gravity for both objects.

Then calculate how far the satellites orbit is away from the equatorial orbit.

Then find the speed the satellite was orbitting at.

Couldn't you use those facts to figure out how long ago a satellite was formed or something useful like that??

 

Has all this been figured out long ago either to be dismissed or accepted??

[ydoaPs]

I was thinking about gravity and it seems to work on a flat plane spanning outwards from the equator of the central body.

Galaxies tend to be flat.

Our solar system appears flat.

Even the satellites orbitting planets appear to be on the flat plane outwards from the planets equator.

Not only that but they orbitting objects seem to follow the same rotation as the central body.

 

I even checked it with this nice interactive applet.

http://www.solarsystem.org.uk/planet10/

 

Doesn't that imply two things.

1 - That the gravity emitted by the central body is strongest at the equator.

2 - That gravity causes a drag/towing effect too.

 

 

how can you go so wrong in one post? where should i begin?

 

not all galaxies are flat. the ones that are are flat because they spin.

 

satillites don't orbit on a plane. they wobble.

 

the effect of rotation of a body is negligible on the other body. you could orbit a planet opposite of the way the planet spins. also, the moon doesn't orbit the earth. the earth and moon orbit each other. same thing with every other orbital system.

[Janus]

I there are at least 20 moons that orbit in retrograde (opposite of the rotation of their planet), including most of Uranus' moons and Triton, the largest moon of Neptune.

[Aeschylus]

the gravitaional field of a spherically symmetric object is spherically itself, the reasn for the phenumna you describe is not grvaity itslef, but the fact that the objects in question possess angular momentum.

[MadScientist]

how can you go so wrong in one post? where should i begin?

 

not all galaxies are flat. the ones that are are flat because they spin.

 

satillites don't orbit on a plane. they wobble.

 

the effect of rotation of a body is negligible on the other body. you could orbit a planet opposite of the way the planet spins. also' date=' the moon doesn't orbit the earth. the earth and moon orbit each other. same thing with every other orbital system.[/quote']

 

Thanks for clearing my picture guys.

 

Wobbling orbits, couldn't that be down to varying strengths of gravitational fields in both bodies??

We know the Earths core is fluid and matter moves around, so small dense area could throw the gravitational field out of balance.

Or is it more like two magnetic fields repelling each other but working in the opposite way since it's gravity.

Or should I just forget all this??

 

 

I already knew about both bodies are affecting each others orbits, it's how we're detecting all these planets around other stars.

But thanks anyway.

[[Tycho?]]

Madscientest, excellent post (the first one)

 

Now, you're wrong, but thats ok. Way to many people come in here saying that relativity is wrong, and that they seem to know everything and that anyone who doesn't agree with them is clearly a moron. You come in and ask an intelligent well thought out question, and are humble about it to boot. Good for you.

 

I wont go into too much detail (since I dont know much). But galaxies and solar systems are generally flat because they rotate, not because gravity is stronger at one point. A solar nebula for example might start out with a slight rotation. As it colapses in on itself, that rotation will speed up to conserve angular momentum. The nebula will have a rotation in one direction slightly larger than in another direction, and this will be the direction of rotation of the system. Other particles will be moving in the opposite direction, and coming down on top of and from blow the disk. As these parcticles hit the (more plentiful) particles already roatating in one direction, they will tend to do the same. The end result is a mostly flat disk of matter spinning in the same direction. When the star at the center is born, the matter will already be spinning in this direction. When the planets around it form, they will already be orbiting in the same direction. There are exceptions of course, caused by collisions or objects that enter the system after its formation. For example pluto orbits above and below the plane of the eleptic, and it isn't going to change this orbit any time soon. You can orbit the sun at any direction and gravity will be equal no matter how you do it.

 

...I ended up going into detail, even though I'm not too sure about some of this. Someone should give this a look over to see if there are any errors. (good chance there are).

[MadScientist]

']Madscientest' date=' excellent post (the first one)

 

Now, you're wrong, but thats ok. Way to many people come in here saying that relativity is wrong, and that they seem to know everything and that anyone who doesn't agree with them is clearly a moron. You come in and ask an intelligent well thought out question, and are humble about it to boot. Good for you.

 

I wont go into too much detail (since I dont know much). But galaxies and solar systems are generally flat because they rotate, not because gravity is stronger at one point. A solar nebula for example might start out with a slight rotation. As it colapses in on itself, that rotation will speed up to conserve angular momentum. The nebula will have a rotation in one direction slightly larger than in another direction, and this will be the direction of rotation of the system. Other particles will be moving in the opposite direction, and coming down on top of and from blow the disk. As these parcticles hit the (more plentiful) particles already roatating in one direction, they will tend to do the same. The end result is a mostly flat disk of matter spinning in the same direction. When the star at the center is born, the matter will already be spinning in this direction. When the planets around it form, they will already be orbiting in the same direction. There are exceptions of course, caused by collisions or objects that enter the system after its formation. For example pluto orbits above and below the plane of the eleptic, and it isn't going to change this orbit any time soon. You can orbit the sun at any direction and gravity will be equal no matter how you do it.

 

...I ended up going into detail, even though I'm not too sure about some of this. Someone should give this a look over to see if there are any errors. (good chance there are).[/quote']

 

Thanks!!

I'm glad you did go into detail cos I can visualise what you mean and it sounds fine to me.

I should have done some research into how gravity works on the net first.

 

 

And I don't mind being wrong in the slightest, I just hope the people on here don't get too fed up with correcting my mistakes all the time.

Which in my opinion they shouldn't, explaining something to someone (even more than once) helps them by reinforcing the facts in their minds. Practice makes perfect, building up those connections in their minds and all that.

 

So I'll go and look for a forum to ask questions about photons now.

[Ophiolite]

Thanks!!

 

And I don't mind being wrong in the slightest' date=' I just hope the people on here don't get too fed up with correcting my mistakes all the time.

Which in my opinion they shouldn't, explaining something to someone (even more than once) helps them by reinforcing the facts in their minds. Practice makes perfect, building up those connections in their minds and all that.

 

So I'll go and look for a forum to ask questions about photons now. [/quote']Excellent attitude. There are no 'dumb questions', although the same can't always be said about the answers!

 

The only way I have ever really understood something was by explaining it to somebody else. Usually the first time I try I realise just how ignorant I am. Then the more I learn the more ignorant I become, because the scope of what I know I don't know enlarges. I try very hard, therefore, to become a little more ignorant every day!!

 

And Tycho, 100% agreement with your two opening paragraphs, and from the little I know about orbital dynamics the rest of the post was fine too. (But this is an area I'm not really ignorant enough about yet!)

[MadScientist]

Excellent attitude. There are no 'dumb questions'' date=' although the same can't always be said about the answers!

 

The only way I have ever really understood something was by explaining it to somebody else. Usually the first time I try I realise just how ignorant I am. Then the more I learn the more ignorant I become, because the scope of what I know I don't know enlarges. I try very hard, therefore, to become a little more ignorant every day!![img']http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/images/icons/icon7.gif[/img]

 

And Tycho, 100% agreement with your two opening paragraphs, and from the little I know about orbital dynamics the rest of the post was fine too. (But this is an area I'm not really ignorant enough about yet!)

 

Now that was COOL!!!

You should work that into a signature for yourself, "Help me become more ignorant by teaching me something new." or something like that.