133 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
133 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
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(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2)
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Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501
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Sponsored by Vangard Sciences
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PO BOX 1031
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Mesquite, TX 75150
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There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS
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on duplicating, publishing or distributing the
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files on KeelyNet except where noted!
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October 6, 1991
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GRAV5.ASC
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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This file shared with KeelyNet courtesy of Tom Albion.
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Tom runs THC Online Systems in Canada at 604-361-4549.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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Weighty Matters
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Could Newton's 300-year-old law of gravity
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finally be succumbing to age?
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Several recent findings seem to deviate from the theory, and now the
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most meticulous test yet--a measurement of the gravitational field
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in a mile-deep borehole in the Greenland ice sheet--has turned up
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further evidence of a discrepancy.
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The implications could be profound. Such small adjustments to
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gravity are in fact predicted by all the most promising attempts to
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forge a unified theory of the fundamental forces--the ultimate goal
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of physics.
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These new effects, which some people call a fifth force and even a
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sixth force, are expected to compare to gravity in strength, but
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they act over perhaps a few hundred or thousands of meters, whereas
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gravity has an infinite range.
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One possibile consequence of such new effects is that within the
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range of the new forces, Newton's inverse-square law (the strength
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of gravity falls as the square of the distance between two masses)
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may not be true.
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Another is that unlike standard gravity, which acts only on mass,
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the new effects may depend on some aspect of an object's
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composition, such as the total number of baryons (protons and
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neutrons).
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Nearly a dozen experiments have sought--inconclusively--to detect
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one of the effects (see "Force of a Different Color" in "Science and
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the Citizen," December, 1987). The Greenland project is the latest
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in a series of attempts to detect a violation of the inverse-square
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law by measuring local gravitational fields and comparing them to
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calculations based on the density of the surrounding terrain.
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An earlier experiment done inside an Australian mine found a
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repulsive effect of roughly 1 percent of the strength of ordinary
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gravity, acting over a range of a few hundred meters.
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Page 1
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A second experiment, carried out on a 600-meter television tower in
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North Carolina, found an attractive effect of about 2 percent of the
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strength of gravity acting over a distance of 300 meters.
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The calculations worked out even better WHEN BOTH AND ATTRACTIVE AND
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A REPULSIVE EFFECT WERE PRESUMNED.
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Skeptics argue that these apparent effects could result from
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anomalies in local mass density, such as a hidden lode of metal ore.
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The Greenland group, led by Mark E. Ander of the Los Alamos National
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Laboratory and Mark A. Zumberge of the University of California at
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San Diego, therefore chose a highly homogeneous site: a borehole
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surrounded by a two-kilometer-thick expanse of ice.
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The team took elaborate precautions: the bedrock was mapped by
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42,000 high-frequency radar scans, and careful surveys determined
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the height of the ice surface to within a centimeter.
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A gravimeter took more than 100 readings at half a dozen locations,
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at depths of between 200 and 1,600 meters.
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The researchers assumed the density of the bedrock might range
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between 2.7 and three grams per cubic centimeter; densities outside
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this range are geologically improbable. Finally, different members
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analyzed the data at least three times.
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Their preliminary conclusion:
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there appears to be a single, attractive effect whose
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strength is between 1.7 and 3.9 percent that of gravity.
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It is thought to act over a distance of somewhere between 10
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meters and slightly more than one kilometer.
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The new findings agree with the results from North Carolina but seem
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to contradict those from Australia. It may be possible to reconcile
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all three results by including both an attractive and a repulsive
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effect, but then the theoretical model "gets rather contrived,"
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according to Ander's colleague Richard Hughes.
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To help determine whether these effects are real or are instead
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caused by hidden anomalies in the environment, the group is already
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planning future experiments in the Pacific Ocean and in Antarctica,
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where the ice is twice as thick as the ice in Greenland.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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See CENTER1 and the GRAV & GRAVITY series on KeelyNet
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for other gravity anomalies.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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If you have comments or other information relating to such topics
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as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the
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Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page.
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Thank you for your consideration, interest and support.
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Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
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Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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If we can be of service, you may contact
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Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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Page 2
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