DescentBB

A thought just occured to me. What is the speed of gravity?
I'm aware it's a dip in space, but it can't be instant, can it?

For example, if the sun were to suddenly dissapear, how long would the Earth orbit the sun after it had dissappeared? 8 minutes at the speed of light? is it slower, or faster?

Spaceboy wrote:Fore example, if the sun were to suddenly dissapear, how long would the Earth orbit the sun after it had dissappeared? 8 minutes,the speed of light? is it slower, or faster?

Gravity is a weak force, and it takes a massive object to exert a noticeable pull. Playing with Einstein's ideas, its not a question of the speed of gravity, its a question of how fast can space be deformed. Einstien states that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, so the fastest we'd feel it is on the order of 8 minutes.

But what would we feel?

So the speed of light is really the speed space can be deformed? That explains alot for me, actually.

I've read numerous times that no matter what speed you're going, light always appears to be traveling the speed of light. Is it really just that, say you got to the point where you were going 100mph slower than the speed of light, time would slow down enough for you that that extra 100mph appears to be the speed of light?

Does the distortion of time limit the amount the universe can be distorted to the speed of light, or does that limit at which the universe can be distorted the cause of time's distortion?

Are there any other properties to the speed of light, or the speed at which the universe can be deformed that I might not know?

I've just been thinking about it lately and am very bugged about it, so I've been asking about it everywhere.
Better yet, reccomend any books on the subject?

speed of gravity is up for analysis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_gravity

Haha, wiki.
I picked up a book called \"The Elegant Universe\" and it explain most of my questions and questions about the explanations in like the first page, +1 for reading.

Thanks though.

The speed of the graviton (the particle that transmits the force of gravity) is supposedly the speed of light. This, however, doesn't make sense, because, for example, the sun is pulling the earth (and vice versa) where it is now, not where it was 8 minutes ago. =P

Does the distortion of time limit the amount the universe can be distorted to the speed of light, or does that limit at which the universe can be distorted the cause of time's distortion?

Are there any other properties to the speed of light, or the speed at which the universe can be deformed that I might not know?

Try not to think too much about general relativity (theory of gravitation) when trying to understand the relative motion of light (special relativity). Einstein said that no matter which speed you are travelling, the speed of a light wave is always c. If you want to read about Relativity, just start with the book Relativity, 100th anniversary edition by Albert Einstein. Oh, and be familiar with calculus and differential equations when you read it. :P I wouldn't recommend reading about Relativity, though.

...because gravity is an electric phenomenon in an electric universe. ^_~

Spaceboy wrote:I picked up a book called "The Elegant Universe" and it explain most of my questions and questions about the explanations in like the first page, +1 for reading.

Check out pbs.org and see if you can find a program by the name of that book, awesome TV series.

I just have one question: is the concept of a gravitational field having a field a fundamental law, or currently just a theory? Because if it's the latter, then I don't want to get into it.

In scientific terms, the distinction you're trying to make doesn't really make sense. A scientific law is simply an observation about the way the universe works. The famous law of conservation of mass/energy states that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, merely converted from one to the other; it's considered a law because that's exactly what we see happen in every observation we take. In contrast, a scientific theory describes an explanation for a certain set of phenomena that is consistent with the results of repeated experimentation. The theories of special and general relativity provide a model for how objects moving near the speed of light interact with one another based on our observations about how the universe works. In this context, the idea of gravitational fields fits into the category of theoretical model (as part of general relativity), since it generally meshes with what we've observed about the interaction of light with massive bodies. I can't say I've ever heard of the concept of a gravitational field having a field itself, if that's what you meant; that idea wouldn't seem to make a whole lot of fundamental sense.