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Timmulus
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If you turned off the suns gravity, how long would it take for the Earth to begin to leave it's orbit and why?
Timmulus said:If you turned off the suns gravity, how long would it take for the Earth to begin to leave it's orbit and why?
What?jck200 said:I am not sure about that, thinking about it if we only detect the affects of gravity indirectly then we would more likely relate them to the indirect information than the actual information.
bluesurge863 said:Approximately 8 minutes.
Gravitational disturbances travel at the speed of light. The sun is 93 million miles away. This, divided by c (the speed of light) gives a time of around 8 minutes.
Kevin_Axion said:This is stated in Einstein's field equations, and if it was instantaneous than it would violate our fundamental understanding of the universe. Gravitational disturbances are generally very difficult to observe unless you have a super-sensitive apparatus that is focused on analyzing black hole combinations or binary pulsars, this is what LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) does.
So at this stage gravitational waves and the speed at which they travel is unproven?K^2 said:Gravity around black holes appears to follow Einstein's Field Equation.
Gravitational waves are propagating distortions of space-time curvature. Nobody has been yet able to actually detect these. It takes an enormous catastrophic event, such as collapse of a star, to produce gravitational waves strong enough for us to detect, and it would have to happen somewhere relatively close.
So yes, at this stage, they are purely a mathematical prediction, but based on a very well established theory.
They have not been experimentally verified, but GR itself has been verified by experiment to an incredible precision, so there is absolutely no reason to suspect a different outcome.Timmulus said:So at this stage gravitational waves and the speed at which they travel is unproven?
Speed of light enters Einstein's Field Eqn. If it was wrong, we'd notice, because it would predict wrong orbits for planets. So while we have no experiment to directly measure speed of gravitational waves, we do know that they should travel at the speed of light.pallidin said:The speed of gravity is currently not known.
As suggested, it is assumed to be at the speed of light, but has not yet been proven.
K^2 said:The assumption that gravitational waves propagate at the speed of light is at the base of deriving GR equations. These equations are tested to 10-12. I can't say that this can't be false, but the odds of us making a mistake like this and still getting the right answer with that sort of precision are incredibly low.
Drakkith said:I think it's safe to say that CURRENTLY our understanding is that gravity waves travel at light speed. If it turns out tomorrow that we were wrong, then so be it. We will have to modify things. We currently just have no reason to assume that they don't travel at light speed.
First of all, according to GR speed of light can be exceeded. It only has to be obeyed locally, and that's a huge loophole.Timmulus said:So, assuming gravity waves do exist, do they travel at light speed because, according to GR, nothing can exceed the speed of light?
The sun's gravity is responsible for holding the entire solar system together. It keeps the planets in orbit and maintains the overall stability of the system.
If the sun's gravity was suddenly turned off, the planets would immediately fly off into space in a straight line, no longer held in orbit by the sun's gravitational pull.
Yes, the Earth would continue to spin on its axis even without the sun's gravity. However, it would no longer be held in its orbit around the sun and would eventually drift off into space.
It would take approximately 8 minutes for the effects of turning off the sun's gravity to reach Earth, as this is the time it takes for light from the sun to reach our planet.
No, it is not possible for us to turn off the sun's gravity. Gravity is an inherent property of mass and cannot be controlled or turned off by humans.