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<p>I've been wondering if our concept of gravitational fields
propogating through everything is correct.</p>
<p>It seems that field lines start at sources and end at sinks. It
also seems that our actual experimental measurements are point to
point interactions between particle masses. But fields are
thought to be properties of space. Could this be just a convenient
mathematical trick?<br>
</p>
<p>For example during a lunar eclipse: : if the sun pulls on the
moon directly and the earth pulls on the moon directly then we
could add the two effects and call it a field effect that does not
exhibit a shielding. This is how we calculate the field PE/m =
- G*Ms/R<font size="-2">sm</font> - G*Me/R<font size="-2">em</font>.
Nothing wrong here<br>
</p>
<p>But if we assume gravity propagates, perhaps with particles like
gravitons, then they would have to penetrate the earth before they
got to the moon. Since these gravitons clearly (maybe not so
clearly) do have an interaction with the mass of the earth it is
puzzling that they go through , pull on the earth, but are not
effected ie. shielding the moon from the Sun's mass<br>
</p>
Historically Maxwell had great success with his equations and the
charge to charge interaction due to EM propagation yields shielding
and retarded force effects - However in his time he left gravity
alone. Have we later simply applied his EM field ideas to gravity
because it was such an elegant formulation? <br>
<br>
So now I have to add the question of why no gravitational shielding
to the question of why no retarded force calculation applies to
gravity? <br>
<br>
Wolf<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dr. Wolfgang Baer
Research Director
Nascent Systems Inc.
tel/fax 831-659-3120/0432
E-mail <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:wolf@NascentInc.com">wolf@NascentInc.com</a></pre>
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