Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 7/23/2009

Question
Hello Jayendra

Thank you for answering my recent question about gravity. http://en.allexperts.com/q/Astronomy-1360/2009/6/gravity-1.htm
I detected you were a bit concerned, though. Perhaps you noticed that I had little knowledge of the thing i was asking about. Its true, I have very little knowledge. Nonetheless, I enjoy thinking about such wonders, and asking questions, and more importantly, I believe that science should keep its doors open to nieve, unbiased thoughts. What if an expert should make sense of a vague thought. Nonetheless, I hope you will forgive me if I return back to my question about gravity. I have questioned what It was I was trying to ask, and having looked back through my book I have found where my thought came from. I think it came from a question I asked Antony, back in 2007. (I don't think I should have asked about gravity and electrons, though). I would like to ask if magnetic fields have a gravity influence?

Here is my question to Antony: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Geology-1359/magnetic-field-earth-plates.htm

Thanks again

David  

Answer
Hi,
You mean if magnetic fields influence gravity.
There is no evidence for this.
However the people like Abdus Salam (Trieste), and Stephen Hawking were trying to develop a unified field theory that unified the strong force (intra atomic) with the weak forces.
So far they have not succeeded.
Neither has anyone found the elusive magnetic monopole.
So this is again in the province "insufficient data for a meaningful answer".
(Asimov's "Last question").

As I said to some one earlier on this forum, Science is NOT about knowing everything.
It is about KNOWING that we dont really know much, and courageously starting from there.
(In place of pompously declaring like Archbishop Usher that the world started in 4004 BC).

Suffice to say that the area concerning you is a known lacuna in our knowledge of the universe.

regards
Jayen