Expert: Tom Whiting - 1/6/2006

Question
Hi expert, how you doing? I'm recently doing a project on how gravity impacted the world. I looking for some invention after discovering gravity. I mean like what kind of things could people invent, and do after knowing the gravity, and helicentric theory?  

Answer
Hi Joo Lee....
How are you doing?
You probably need to pick a different project...
Why?
Because gravity wasn't invented or discovered by man;
gravity existed... since the....beginning.  (Probably by God)....
Any presence of mass (like the Earth or the Sun)
produces, and has,  gravity.

Kind of like asking, OK, after the invention of dirt, air
and sunlight, what did man invent after dirt, air and sunlight
were discovered or invented?
{Better hybrid plants....I guess.}

Since gravity was already known, all man tried to
do was....*explain*  what gravity WAS.  Sir Isaac Newton was the first one to try to attempt to explain gravity as an
attractive force between two bodies, say the Earth and moon.
But this explanation falls short, because it explains what
gravity does, or *appears* to do, and not WHAT gravity actually is.  And even this explanation, was not correct.
(It just looked correct at the time).

Then Albert Einstein came along around 1915 and offered this explanation (called General Relativity)...gravity is simply a curvature of space (and time) caused by simply the presence of a mass (say, the Earth).
This effect looks like a force, but it isn't....it's simply a body,
say the moon, following the curvature of space around
the Earth, and the Earth is following the curvature of space
around the sun.  While this was a much more accurate
explanation of what gravity does, it still falls short of what gravity really is.

Today we know that gravity is caused by a small sub-atomic particle called a graviton,  but the graviton hasn't been discovered or seen as yet.  We don't even know how a mass
produces gravitons.......
So even today, we still don't really know what gravity really is....but we're working on it.

But that's OK...often we don't know exactly what something
is.....like electricity....{flow of electons? One electron quickly bumping into it's neighbor?}...
We don't know, but we can still successfully use electricity, even though we don't really know what electricity is, as yet.
(Magnetism is another one...).

So what you really need is....an invention that works on the
Earth where there is lots of gravity, but not in space where
there is no gravity?    Almost everything.   Even your
normal toilet would not work in zero gravity, the water
would float out of it, and not go down the drainpipe,
it would not flush,  BUT......

Best modern day example I can think of , and first thing that comes to mind is a modern day coffee maker, like a BUNN coffee maker.  
After setting it up with fresh coffee grounds, and a
clean, fresh empty coffee pot, you pour the cold water in, and in a few seconds, you see the coffee-flavored hot water come streaming out from the top, and down into the pot.
Would this work in a zero gravity field in space?   NO!  It is totally dependent on gravity to work.
You pour the water in....with a gravity assist...water would
not pour...it would float...in space.- (at zero gravity)
Then the coffee-flavored water comes pouring out from the top, into the pot...this would not happen in space either, as gravity is assisting the flow of coffee fluid.

I've actually had people call me when their coffee maker
quits working, (usually leaking out water) wondering,  guess my pump quit working?....
"There is no pump in the coffee maker"

Well, then a valve or two must have quit working....
"There are no valves"
Well, then some lever, or diaphram must have quit working....
"There are no moving parts in a coffee maker...it only
uses gravity".....

{Unplug the device, pour the water in, and it still makes
coffee, right?---of course, after a period of time,
your freshly made coffee won't be hot any more, but it
will still work).  It only uses electricity to keep the water
and coffee pot hot, and that's all.}

Your coffee maker works by simple overflow and gravity.
(Thus,  it would not work in space under zero gravity).
It is a very simple system.

What you have is a heated metal, hollow cylinder full of pre-heated hot water with a  closed tube down the middle, and the hot water cylinder  is open on top.  The cold water you pour in (by gravity)  flows down the middle closed tube
(by gravity), and enters the heated water cylinder on the bottom, (not the top), causing the water level to rise and "overflow" (by gravity)  on the open top of the cylinder.  This hot water is then directed (by gravity) into the coffee grounds container, it seeps thru the coffee grounds (by gravity), then flows into the coffee pot (again, by gravity).
That's all that happens, simply using overflow, and gravity to work.
(So the only reason a coffee maker fails to work, a hole
or leak develops in either the internal tube or the metal
container, OR the internal tube gets plugged up with solids, and that's all- one can easily fix it by repairing
the leaky hole- or cleaning out the solid formations in the
internal tube,  because that's all that can happen to have
it fail to work.)  Because all it uses is gravity to make coffee.

As far as the heliocentric theory, I can't think of anything
that would not work even if the Earth were stationary,
rather than revolving around the sun.  That's one reason it took man so long to discover and realize that the Earth revolved around the sun, and not the sun revolving around a non-moving, stationary Earth.  Because everything would work normally under both conditions.  Even artificial Earth
satellites.

Hope all this helps.
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA