Should the suns gravity be turned off(though unlikely), I would hypothesize that the effect would be instantaneous. It takes light 8 minutes to to reach earth from the sun, however, gravity is a constant force that has no delay I.E. you walk off of the roof of a building, you fall instantly. you do not hover for 8 minutes before you descend. As soon as man leaves the atmosphere in a spaceship, he feels the gravity change immediately. Thus one could safely believe that as soon as gravity has ceased to act upon the earth, the effect would be intantaneous. Just like it ceased to act upon the man leaving earth's atmosphere.
Originally posted by zakkwylderThe sun is 8 light minutes from earth.
Should the suns gravity be turned off(though unlikely), I would hypothesize that the effect would be instantaneous. It takes light 8 secs to to reach earth from the sun, however, gravity is a constant force that has no delay I.E. you walk off of the roof of a building, you fall instantly. you do not hover for 8 seconds before you descend. As soon as man l ...[text shortened]... fect would be intantaneous. Just like it ceased to act upon the man leaving earth's atmosphere.
When you fall off a roof you are not affected by the Sun's Gravity but by the Earth's.
However from my vague understanding of space-time and gravity I believe the effect would be instantaneous despite the complete crap you just posted.
Originally posted by XanthosNZI was being sarcastic at that point brilliance. and i apologize for the mix-up(secs/mins). The principle remains the same though, gravity acts instantly and the lack of gravity is felt instantly, it has nothing to do with how long it takes light to get the earth as was proposed in the first post. thats the point I was making, so take your attitude elsewhere.
The sun is 8 light [b]minutes from earth.
When you fall off a roof you are not affected by the Sun's Gravity but by the Earth's.
However from my vague understanding of space-time and gravity I believe the effect would be instantaneous despite the complete crap you just posted.[/b]
As I am to understand it gravity is not simply a constant force, it is a result of the interaction involving gravitons, massless particles which travel at the speed of light. I therefore conclude that the effect would not be instant but resricted to the speed of light. however, I am not certain of this
Originally posted by XanthosNZI missed my chance to correct you? What a bummer! How long till I get my next one, I wonder.
Yes I'm changing my earlier opinion after looking through my physics notes.
The effect of gravity travels at the speed of light. Therefore we would have 8 minutes grace. Not that we'd know we'd had them until afterwards.
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If the effect was instantaneous then the information that the sun's gravity had been switched off would have been transmitted to us faster than light. In theory then, someone could send messages to someone on another planet via gravity by (e.g.) moving the earths orbit slightly, these messages would travel faster than light.
I don't think messages faster than light are allowed so the change in the sun's gravity would not be felt instantaneously.