Is gravity 'weak' because it leaks into higher dimensions?

[Mark M]

I'm afraid I don't understand your response. The OP's original question suggested that the reason gravity is so much weaker than the other forces might be that it may be leaking into other dimensions. In as much as the inverse square law is a direct consequence of propagation in three dimensions it should be obvious that propagation into additional dimensions to any significant amount would have to increase the value of the propagation exponent.

The size of the radius of the extra dimensions really doesn't come into play here. If enough gravity is leaking into other dimensions to reduce gravity from a strong force to a weak force, it really doesn't matter how small the radii of the other dimensions are, it will have to noticeably increase the propagation exponent.

Skeptic, the point I was trying to make was that if extra dimensions were curled up and small - as results from particle accelerators would require them to be - they would have no effect on gravitational force, and hence would not be an explanation of a weak gravitational force.

The idea of extra dimensions being responsible for weak gravity in M-theory, as I explained in my original discussion with OP, isn't that the presence of the extra dimensions has any effect on gravity - it's that gravitons would 'leak' off of our D3-brane. This would result in a lower Newton's constant, with no effect on the inverse square law.

Sorry if I was unclear about this in my response.

 

[TheTechNoir]

Skeptic, the point I was trying to make was that if extra dimensions were curled up and small - as results from particle accelerators would require them to be - they would have no effect on gravitational force, and hence would not be an explanation of a weak gravitational force.

The idea of extra dimensions being responsible for weak gravity in M-theory, as I explained in my original discussion with OP, isn't that the presence of the extra dimensions has any effect on gravity - it's that gravitons would 'leak' off of our D3-brane. This would result in a lower Newton's constant, with no effect on the inverse square law.

Sorry if I was unclear about this in my response.

Skeptic: this is what I was referring to in the first page. It's an interesting consequence of this, that if we probed gravity's strength on smaller and smaller distance scales and eventually found a distance at which it was stronger, we would under this belief have evidence towards the size of the small dimensions. Likewise the smaller distances we probe without finding any deviation is evidence suggesting if the dimensions exist, they must be smaller than that amount that we probed and saw no change in gravity's strength at.

 

[tanzanos]

Perhaps gravity is but a shadow cast by the interactions of the remainder forces. We can feel the effects and even measure it but like a real shadow; It has no substance. Perhaps we should rename gravity into "Space curvature". Like any curvature it is not a force in itself but the result of the effects of other forces. Just a thought!