Historical Attempts at Understanding Gravity
– Isaac Newton observed an apple falling from a tree, leading to the principle of universal gravitation.
– Albert Einstein proposed that gravity is caused by matter deforming space.
– Einstein attempted to unify gravity with electromagnetism using the work of Theodor Kaluza and James Clerk Maxwell.
– Theoretical physicists have postulated the existence of a quantum gravity particle called the graviton.
– Various theories of quantum gravity have been developed, including superstring theory and loop quantum gravity.
Efforts to Understand Gravity and Anti-Gravity
– Newton’s law of universal gravitation was replaced by general relativity, where gravity is the result of spacetime geometry.
– Under general relativity, anti-gravity is only possible under contrived circumstances.
– General relativity initially faced challenges due to a lack of suitable mathematical tools.
– The US Air Force allegedly conducted gravity control propulsion research in the 1950s.
– Efforts were made by private companies and institutions to understand gravity, such as the Glenn L. Martin Company and the Institute for Field Physics.
– The Gravity Research Foundation was formed by Roger Babson to study ways to reduce the effects of gravity.
– The Foundation shifted its focus to better understanding gravity after Babson’s death.
– The Foundation continues to administer an essay award, with winners including Nobel Prize laureates.
– The US military’s support for anti-gravity projects was terminated in 1973.
Hypothetical Solutions and Concepts
– Negative mass could potentially produce a repulsive gravitational field, according to theories.
– General relativity was introduced in the 1910s but faced challenges in development.
– The Mansfield Amendment of 1973 ended military support for anti-gravity projects.
– Negative mass could potentially produce singularity-free solutions in relativity equations.
– Any form of energy, including antimatter, couples with spacetime to create gravity.
– CPT symmetry demonstrated that antimatter follows the same laws of physics as normal matter.
– Attempts were made to produce a unified field theory to explain gravity and the other fundamental forces.
– The Standard Model of particle physics does not include negative mass.
– Cosmological dark matter and dark energy have gravitational effects, but their nature and mass are not fully understood.
Attempts to Quantize Gravity
– Scientists have attempted to unify the three quantum forces with gravity, but have been unsuccessful.
– Simple attempts to quantize gravity by positing a particle called the graviton have failed.
– More complex theories, such as supersymmetry and supergravity, require the existence of a weak fifth force carried by a graviphoton.
– These theories also suggest that antimatter would be affected by this fifth force, causing repulsion away from mass.
– Experiments in the 1990s were conducted to measure the effect of this fifth force, but yielded no positive results.
Empirical Claims, Commercial Efforts, and Controversies
– There have been attempts to build anti-gravity devices, but none have been accepted as reproducible examples.
– Some scientific literature reports anti-gravity-like effects, but these claims are not widely accepted.
– Gyroscopes have been used to generate illusory anti-gravity effects, leading to claims of anti-gravity devices.
– Patented devices based on gyroscopic forces have not been demonstrated to work under controlled conditions.
– Other devices, such as rotating disks made of specific materials, have been proposed but lack independent testing or public demonstration.
– Thomas Townsend Brown claimed to have observed anti-gravity effects using high-voltage devices.
– Brown developed asymmetrical capacitor devices called gravitators, which he tested in a vacuum.
– Brown’s work on electrogravitics and the Biefeld-Brown effect gained attention in the media.
– Follow-up studies on Brown’s work have shown that his devices produce thrust consistent with electrohydrodynamic effects, not anti-gravity.
– Eugene Podkletnov claimed to have observed reduced gravitational effects with fast rotating superconductors.
– Numerous attempts to reproduce Podkletnov’s experiment have failed.
– Researchers proposed that time-dependent magnetic fields could generate detectable gravitomagnetic and gravitoelectric fields in superconductors.
– Claims of a working prototype to generate AC Gravity were made in 1999, but no further evidence was provided.
– A leaked document from the University of South Carolina mentioned the development of a gravity generator, but no additional information was made public. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigravity
Anti-gravity (also known as non-gravitational field) is a hypothetical phenomenon of creating a place or object that is free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to either the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to balancing the force of gravity with some other force, such as electromagnetism and aerodynamic lift. Anti-gravity is a recurring concept in science fiction. Examples are the gravity blocking substance "Cavorite" in H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon and the Spindizzy machines in James Blish's Cities in Flight.
"Anti-gravity" is often used to refer to devices that look as if they reverse gravity even though they operate through other means, such as lifters, which fly in the air by moving air with electromagnetic fields.
