Incidentally, what about electromagnetism and the other fundamental forces? Can they be described the same way as gravity? In classical mechanics they’re the same kind of thing as gravity, except they can be repulsive as well. And a lot of popsci versions of modern physics research seems to postulate the same kind of properties for gravity as we know from electromagnetism: like repulsive gravity, or gravitational shields, or effects due to gravitational waves propagating at speed of light, or artificial gravity. And all forces are related through inertial mass.
So is there a description of all these things, including gravity, in the same terms? Either all of them “forces” or fields with mediating particles, or all of them affecting some kind of geometry?
Scott Aaronson has a nice post about the differences between gravity and electromagnetism. It seems his thoughts were running along the same lines as yours when he wrote it; he asks almost all the same questions. http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=244
Gravity waves come straight out of GR. (Actually, weak gravity waves show up in the linearized theory (the linearized theory of GR being a certain approximation of it that’s easier to deal with, good for low energies and such))
And that was part of what I was asking about. Well, others have tried to find that sort of thing, but I was asking something like “in the standard model and such, are the forces really aspects of what would amount to the geometry (specifically the symmetries) of configuration space rather than additional dimensions in the config space?”
And, of course, one of the BIG questions for modern physics is how to get a quantum description of gravity or to otherwise find a model of reality which contains both QM and GR in a “natural” way.
So, basically, at this point, all I can say is “I don’t really know.” :)
(well, also, I guess depending on how you look at it, curvature either explains or explains away tidal force. It explains the effects/behaviors, but explains away any apparent “forces” being involved.)
OK, now I understand better, thanks :-)
Incidentally, what about electromagnetism and the other fundamental forces? Can they be described the same way as gravity? In classical mechanics they’re the same kind of thing as gravity, except they can be repulsive as well. And a lot of popsci versions of modern physics research seems to postulate the same kind of properties for gravity as we know from electromagnetism: like repulsive gravity, or gravitational shields, or effects due to gravitational waves propagating at speed of light, or artificial gravity. And all forces are related through inertial mass.
So is there a description of all these things, including gravity, in the same terms? Either all of them “forces” or fields with mediating particles, or all of them affecting some kind of geometry?
Scott Aaronson has a nice post about the differences between gravity and electromagnetism. It seems his thoughts were running along the same lines as yours when he wrote it; he asks almost all the same questions. http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=244
That was very interesting and relevant. Thanks.
Gravity waves come straight out of GR. (Actually, weak gravity waves show up in the linearized theory (the linearized theory of GR being a certain approximation of it that’s easier to deal with, good for low energies and such))
And that was part of what I was asking about. Well, others have tried to find that sort of thing, but I was asking something like “in the standard model and such, are the forces really aspects of what would amount to the geometry (specifically the symmetries) of configuration space rather than additional dimensions in the config space?”
And, of course, one of the BIG questions for modern physics is how to get a quantum description of gravity or to otherwise find a model of reality which contains both QM and GR in a “natural” way.
So, basically, at this point, all I can say is “I don’t really know.” :)
(well, also, I guess depending on how you look at it, curvature either explains or explains away tidal force. It explains the effects/behaviors, but explains away any apparent “forces” being involved.)