A Theory of Gravity

by Wycroft Taylor

  The fourth paragraph said, “Not all particles that exist can be presumed to be known to exist by scientists. This is especially the case when one goes below a certain size. The ‘utterly minute’ are entirely mysterious. This essay speculates about such particles, specifically about those that are responsible for gravity.

  The fifth paragraph seemed to be the launching platform for a blizzard of speculative ideas that at first did not seem to relate to gravity though, as the later paragraphs made clear, was related. The groundwork was being laid. This was the fifth paragraph: “Space is not empty and is only thought sometimes to be empty because of how small, virtually undetectable, the particles filling it happen to be.”

  The rest of the essay followed, they thought, more or less logically from the fifth paragraph. “Take, for instance, a star and think of it in a way that may be new to you. Instead of thinking of it as an object no larger than the gaseous mass of particles easily observed and measured, think of it instead as a series of spheres (all of which are hollow except for the first).

  “The concentric spheres vary according to density (they get less dense the farther they get from the core) and also according to the velocity of the particles that compose them. The outermost spheres consist of particles so widely spaced and slow moving that they cannot yet be observed either directly or indirectly.

  “The concentric spheres of gas are not all there is to a star. Beyond the gaseous mass, there are clouds of light (meaning emanations of particles vibrating across the full electro-magnetic spectrum) and clouds of gravity (meaning particles varying in size, strength of attraction, and shape). The light sphere goes out farther than the gravity sphere though, as is obviously the case, the gravity sphere goes out very far indeed.

  Just as the particles that make up gaseous spheres become ever less dense and ever slower the farther they are from the center of the star so also do the particles that make up light and gravity become ever less dense and ever the farther they get from their star’s center. The change however is less gradual than is the case with the gaseous spheres; instead, it is incremental.

  A series of symbols followed that Peter and Sylvia assumed must be mathematical formulas even though they never did quite succeed in coming up with an adequate translation that could be understood by mathematicians and physicists back on Earth.

  “The particles that shine (that is, the light particles) have the interesting property of pointing only straight out from the center of the gaseous mass of the star. This means that the array of particles is more like countless spikes coming from a central core much in the way that atoms and molecules that make up the bodies of some sea creatures, seeds, and microbes are arranged. If light particles did not have this peculiar property of pointing only straight out from the center of their stars, the universe would be full of light. Instead, there are pinpoints of light set into a velvety black surround.

  “Gravity particles are unique in terms of the array of their properties and also according to how intricately the various properties connect to one another. Perhaps more than one particle is involved. Probably more than one kind of particle is involved. There is a kind of dance in which many particle take part, the dance more than the particles being responsible for the phenomenon called gravity.

  “Whether one kind or more than one kind of particle lies behind gravity, it (or they) are so tiny as to be not yet detectable and have therefore had to be imagined in different ways including in ways other than as particles.

  “Here are some speculations about the nature of gravity particles that might or might not be someday be borne out by whatever instruments and techniques of measurement future scientists and mathematicians might come up with.

  “From one among the many sub-particles collectively called atoms, gravity particles (which might be termed sub-sub particles one property of which is gravitational attraction) are continuously being ejected and swallowed up. Once ejected, these particles flow outwards in all directions away from the center of the sub-particle out of which they came.

  “The gravity sub-sub-particles take a peculiar path, have a peculiar range of properties, and have peculiar shapes (or perhaps it might be more accurate to say that they themselves eject another particle—a sub-sub-sub particle).

  “One thing that has to be said about gravity sub-sub-particles is that there is not just one kind. Instead, there are a number of different kinds, each kind having somewhat unique properties that are slightly different from the properties of gravity sub-sub-particles of a different kind. How the kinds differ will be expounded on in the following paragraphs; first, however, it is important to point out the similarities of the different kinds.

  “One peculiar property of all kinds of gravity sub-sub-particles has to do with how these sub-sub particles are affected by other gravity parties that also are streaming out of sub-particles that are a part of atoms close enough to one another to be regarded as being part of the same object. An example is a star, planet, asteroid, or any other free floating object such as a rock falling through a planet’s atmosphere. The particles are affected by other particles of the same kind this way: The particles line up in the way magnets having positive and negative poles line up.

  “An attraction weaker than the attraction that causes the lining up to occur acts perpendicular to the direction of the line, resulting in the fact that lines very close in proximity make loosely bound bundles of lines unimaginably small in diameter. Think of these bundles as very fine hairs or streamers that, because the particles that make them up come out continuously, can more accurately be thought of as permanent features of objects than as tiny particles in constant motion. If the sub-sub particles one property of which is gravity could be seen, all objects would look like huge balls having fuzzy surfaces.

  “Now, so far only part of the direction of movement of the gravity sub-sub particles has been discussed. Gravity particles actually go only a limited distance away from the sub-particle out of which they came. Then, when they reach the distance which is their limit, they loop around and head back to the sub-particles out of which they came or to particles like those out of which they came yet close enough to be part of the same object.

  “To make the picture of objects that includes the streaming sub-sub particles that have gravity as one property more accurate than it has so far been made, one should think in terms of objects consisting of looping lines, like flower petals, that, surrounding their centers in all directions, turn them into huge spheres having mottled surfaces.

  “It has already been noted that there are different kinds of sub-sub particles having gravity as a property. One way the kinds differ has to do with how far away from an object they go before looping around and heading back. Some kind go perhaps a few miles. Others go a few hundred miles. Still others go a few thousand miles. And so on up to kinds that go millions of miles away from their origin before turning back.

  “If each kind of sub-sub particle was pictured as having a distinct color, then an object could be pictured as a huge sphere the mottled surface of which is semi-translucent and colored. If one looks hard, one might see through the semi-translucent surface another, slightly smaller sphere colored somewhat differently. One might see three or four spheres, one inside of the other, before the color got so dense as to make seeing any farther into the object impossible.

  “A cross-sectional slice of the object that cut through its center would show a very large and very magnificent and very beautiful flower-like object. Ever larger semi-translucent petals would circle around an opaque, rainbow-hued or possibly white central circle having a diameter much smaller than the diameter of any of the circles made up of same-colored petals.

  “Now, the properties of the gravity sub-sub particles vary according to the direction of movement. The sticky property, the property called gravity, could not exist at all while the sub-sub particles flow away from their source. But, when the sub-sub particles reach their apogees, they change. They become ‘sticky.’
We call this stickiness ‘gravity.’

  “The off-on switch related to direction of travel has to exist. Otherwise, objects that happened to be in the vicinity or come into the vicinity of a massive object would be both pushed away and pulled towards an object. There would be buffeting tides. But buffeting tides, the kind of thing that science might be able to detect if they did exist, have never been detected. One has to assume therefore that they don’t exist. An off-on switch better fits what has been observed.

  “Thus, only during the inflow (the rushing back to the object of origin) do the sub-sub particles associated with gravity exhibit the property we call gravity. They suddenly turn sticky. When the paths of sub-sub gravity particles emanating from different object cross paths, each being sticky but some being stickier than others, a kind of tug of war ensues with the more solid lines and thicker bundles being stickier and grabbing hold of less solid lines and thinner bundles.

  “Another point that needs to be made is this: sub-sub particles of the kind that go farther away from their object before turning back are stickier on the inflow than sub-sub particles that go a shorter distance away from their object before turning back on their inflow.

  “Thus, sub-sub particles of a kind that goes farthest out will overpower in stickiness the sub-sub particles of kinds that go less far away from their objects. The shorter strands will inexorably get tangled up among the longer strands and, having gotten tangled up will be dragged along with the object at their center towards the object at the center of the longer strands.

  “Every object therefore can be regarded as a composite consisting of a spider at the center of the huge three-dimensional web it constantly spins. Smaller webs with spiders at their center get bound up in larger webs with larger spiders at their center and, once bound up, get pulled (web, spider, and any of that smaller spider’s wriggling or mummified prey) in towards the spider at the center of the larger web. The large spider feels the tug and gets ready to pounce, mummify, or devour.

  “To employ another metaphor, every object can be regarded as a fisherman inside of a submarine that floats deep below the surface of an ocean and shoots out through torpedo bays found everywhere on the surface of the torpedo nets that catch smaller fisherman inside of smaller submarines that have shot out in all directions through torpedo bays smaller nets. The smaller fisherman, his submarine, his nets, and his catch cannot help but be pulled inside of the larger submarine never to be seen again.

  “How can the property metaphorically called “stickiness” here but more typically “gravity” be explained? Might there be still another type of particle, a sub-sub-sub particle that flows sideways out of and then back into the sub-sub particle credited with having the gravity property that functions something like a thorn that sticks into any object that shares its space? Might that account for the stickiness? Might there be still another particle, a sub-sub-sub-sub particle that fly out of and back in towards what has been likened to thorns, resulting in the creation of a Velcro-like material more sticky than any simple thorn would be?

  “Needless to say, when considering how gravity works one has also to take into account the trajectory and speed of motion of each object that crossed the path of any other object. Gravity works as has been explained above but must also contend with other forces. Thus, a smaller object will fall into or orbit around or ricochet away from a larger object depending on the strength and nature of each of the forces involved.”

  If Peter and Sylvia actually succeeded in putting the pieces of the essay on gravity together as it was meant to be put together by the author, the essay came to an abrupt end with that last sentence and its concluding phrase consisting of just three words: ‘the forces involved.’

  Chapter 55: Endless Thinking

  After looking over the essay making some last-minute changes in translation and ordering, Peter and Sylvia both wondered if the ideas found in the essay as they translated and arranged made sense. Might those ideas really point the way to an explanation of an important aspect of reality in a way unlike any explanation ever given by any theoretical physicist on Earth? Whether true or not, they wondered what physicists back on Earth would make of these ideas. They wondered if the Earth-based physicists would even be willing to open their minds enough to consider ideas so very different from the Einsteinian ideas that had become their preferred explanation.

  Peter and Sylvia did not think they themselves were qualified adequately to be able to evaluate either those ideas or Einstein’s, not having gotten to the highest level in their study or practice of physics.

  Nevertheless, they both had studied physics and compared with the average person knew quite a lot of physics—enough, at least, to find what they read intriguing and even exciting. They thought the ideas plausible albeit a little vague and perhaps so metaphorical or poetic in places as to be a little too seductive. Was beautiful imagery sidelining reasoning?

  They knew, for instance, that Newton who, in a sense discovered gravity and gave it its name, had no explanation for it whatsoever. Though he deduced that gravity must be a universal phenomenon, one that existed everywhere in space and throughout time, he admitted that he had no idea what might account for it. He even went to far as to say that it made no sense whatsoever to him that a phenomenon like gravity that pulled smaller objects towards larger objects across empty space made no sense to him. Having concluded that gravity had to exist, he admitted that nevertheless the existence of such a thing made no sense to him. With no idea at all of how to explain the phenomenon, Newton had to confined his efforts to observing and predicting the motions of bodies subjected to this unknown and mysterious phenomenon.

  They knew also that, though Newton offered no explanation and expressed only bewilderment and offered only observations and predictions, Einstein did offer an explanation while also fine-tuning the mathematics behind some of Newton’s observations and predictions.

  Attempting to compare Einstein’s theory with the theory found in their essay was complicated by the fact that Peter and Sylvia interpreted Einstein’s theory somewhat differently. While both felt Einstein’s theory supposed the existence of a kind of web of lines of force that functioned much like greased tracks onto which all objects tended to settle and then, once having landed on a track, could not easily get off of it since motion was so much easier on a track than off one.

  Both Peter and Sylvia believed that, according to Einstein, the lines of force, or tracks, filled all of space (though more were to be found in some parts of space than in other parts) and were in effect the highways and byways of space that, to a great extent (but not entirely), determined the paths objects took when moving in space.

  They both believed that Einstein explained gravity as resulting from the fact that the number and length of lines of force (or tracks) passing by or running into objects varied according to how massive an object was. They also both believed that Einstein said that the curvature of lines of force (or tracks) that passed by an object also varied according to how massive an object was.

  Peter and Sylvia disagreed about Einstein thought explained the positioning, length and degree of curvature of the lines of force (or tracks). Peter thought the variations in length, curvature, and density of lines existed independently of matter. In a sense, according to Peter’s interpretation of Einstein, the lines of force existed before matter existed or at least before an infusion of energy put matter in motion. Then, according to Peter’s interpretation of Einstein, much of moving matter settled onto tracks and ran on those tracks with the number of particles of matter coming together in the same place depending on the preexisting arrangement of tracks. Thus, according to Peter’s interpretation of Einstein, stars came into being, planets formed and revolved around stars, things spun on their axis, and so on.

  Sylvia’s interpretation of Einstein was somewhat different from Peter’s interpretation. She believed that Einstein thought that the lines of force, prior to the existence of matter or of moving matte
r were a uniform, orderly grid with every part of space having the exact same number and arrangement of lines of force running through it. Then, according to Sylvia’s interpretation, when matter came into existence or started to move, then gravity, being a property of matter and cumulative in nature, began simultaneously to affect all things including the lines of force (the tracks). Thus, particles of matter got bound together as stars, planets, asteroids, comets, and so forth and the lines of force (the tracks) got pushed together or pulled apart or curved or twisted.

  According to Peter’s interpretation, matter accumulated in places dictated by the arrangement of lines of force (or tracks) that existed prior to and independently of matter. According to his interpretation, gravity was more illusion than reality. It was a word coined to describe how particles or clusters or aggregates of matter moved in relation to one another not as a result of being influenced by each other but instead as a consequence of how the arrangement, shape, length, and density of the preexisting lines of force (or tracks) made them move.

  Now, because Peter’s interpretation of Einstein differed somewhat from Sylvia’s, the job of deciding what theory they preferred was made more difficult than it would have been had they interpreted Einstein’s theory the same way. They now had three theories instead of just two to reflect on and evaluate.

  They spent a lot of time thinking about gravity on their own and also through discussion. Their preferences would change from day to day and sometimes even from hour to hour. Sometimes they both preferred the same theory; sometimes, one preferred one theory and the other preferred a different one. Sometimes one was undecided while the other had a clear preference and sometimes both were undecided about which, if any of the three, theories was best. And they never really did resolve the issue.

  Sylvia would ask Peter, “Where did the lines of force, postulated by Einstein, come from? Who or what created those lines of force? Extending the analogies of spiders spinning webs and fishermen inside of submarines shooting nets into Einstein’s universe, we’d have to say that a spider residing somewhere outside of the universe spun a web so huge that, after being sucked through a hole in its universe, it filled ours. Or,” Sylvia went on, “we’d have to say that a fisherman made a net so huge that, after he pushed it through a hole he found in his universe, it filled ours. Does any of that make sense? I have a lot of trouble with the idea.”