Is There a Connection Between Electromagnetism and Gravity?

[JayJohn85]

My last thread for a while. Could possibly be a dumb question so you must forgive I am not well versed in these matters but have become curious about physics in general. I was just wondering if it was possible that electromagnetism and gravity are actually connected?

 

[JayJohn85]

Actually thinking about this in regards to photons the force carriers of electromagnetism. Gravity exerts a pull on them so probably aren't connected, I don't know. No wonder others who propose such things seem to wish to discredit the photon.

 

[Khashishi]

People have been attempting to unify gravity with the other fundamental forces for years, without success. It's easy enough to suppose they are connected, but much harder to actually show how they are connected.

 

[HomogenousCow]

They are certainly coupled to each other, but that does not unify the two anymore than gravity is unified with matter.

 

[Pseudo Epsilon]

Didnt Einstein himself believe that they were unified?

 

[cosmik debris]

Didnt Einstein himself believe that they were unified?

I think most physicists do. Einstein wrote papers on Unified Field Theory as early as 1923.

 

[JayJohn85]

Didnt Einstein himself believe that they were unified?

I didn't know that thanks.

 

[JayJohn85]

I wish I knew more about physics currently I am just learning basic maths repeating my GCSE with the aim of going on to do A-level then maybe doing A-level physics I passed my double award science. Anyway point is there was a guy on about a equation that included all constants, I doubt such a equation exists.

However say gravity was a wave and it had some serious relationship to electromagnetism would that not mean a equation including the gravitational constant alongside Planck's constant? Or am I just grasping at straws. I ain't sure what the other big constants are? Some sort of wave equation.

Suppose we need to understand the theoretical graviton and its properties perhaps I wonder is there any kind of relationship to the photon.

 

[Fightfish]

My last thread for a while. Could possibly be a dumb question so you must forgive I am not well versed in these matters but have become curious about physics in general. I was just wondering if it was possible that electromagnetism and gravity are actually connected?

Well, Kaluza showed many years ago that if there was a fourth spatial dimension, then the extension of GR to five-dimensional spacetime actually results in Maxwell's equations.
Whether or not this is merely a curious coincidence is up to your interpretation though I guess.

 

[s0ft]

Though I don't know GR, wow, that is interesting.

 

[ash64449]

Well, Kaluza showed many years ago that if there was a fourth spatial dimension, then the extension of GR to five-dimensional spacetime actually results in Maxwell's equations.
Whether or not this is merely a curious coincidence is up to your interpretation though I guess.

Not only that.extending to many more spatial dimension resulted in unification of strong and weak force too.. But this kinds of theories had a problem. They are not renormalizable.

Then a new theory came in which connects quantum theory with the theory of hyperspace known as string theory. Now it is known as the leading candidate for theory of everything(unified field theory)

 

[Dale]

Currently, there is no theory which is working which univies gravity and EM. Although the various flavors of string theory do hold some promise they have been holding the same promise for more than a decade now. If you have specific questions about "Grand Unified Theory" or "Theory of Everything" then it might be better to post those questions to the Beyond the Standard Model forum.