Gravity Disappears Universally?

[enfp can be shy]

Suppose right now gravity disappears simultaneously everywhere in the known universe. What would happen?

I couldn't figure it out completely... Obviously galaxies, black holes, and all macro-structures of the universe will fall apart; stars can't function as before; even planets. But will they fall to pieces, or will the strong and electromagnetic forces be enough to keep them solid?

What would be the future development of such universe? Could we come up with some life forms suited for it? Could we adapt some of the existing ones for it?

p.s. this should destroy the fabric of the space-time continuum, and i'm not sure whether time and mass would have a meaning anymore?

 

[Phoenix Down]

Electricity and magnetism does make this scenario interesting enough.

 

[bamf]

That would suck. Centripetal force would fling us into space, me thinks.

 

[IndigoSensor]

Oh, now this is an interesting question! Wow...

After billions of years the universe (outside of solid objects like earth and asteroids and stuff) would become a soup of sorts. The majority of intersteller objects are held together by gravity, and would thus fall apart. Some catastrophicly, such as pulsars, black holes, and many many stars. Planets like jupiter would spin themselves into a flat disk of gas. Earth... I am not so sure about. I don't think people would get flung off the planet, but would more or less drift off and slowly appear to lift off the ground in a tangent line from where the started. Watching the oceans float into space would absolutely facenating to watch. Despite the fact that electricity and magnitism is 10^23th something times stronger, the majority of intersteller objects are held together by gravity. Electricity and magnitism is largely a product of such large objects. There might be several space entities that would cause the planets and or stars to remain held together but E&M forces (perhaps some stars) but I don't think it would last for long.

Someone needs to create a mathimatical model for this and plug it into a computer. Is there an astrophysicist in the house? lol.

 

[Phoenix Down]

Oh, now this is an interesting question! Wow...

After billions of years the universe (outside of solid objects like earth and asteroids and stuff) would become a soup of sorts. The majority of intersteller objects are held together by gravity, and would thus fall apart. Some catastrophicly, such as pulsars, black holes, and many many stars. Planets like jupiter would spin themselves into a flat disk of gas. Earth... I am not so sure about. I don't think people would get flung off the planet, but would more or less drift off and slowly appear to lift off the ground in a tangent line from where the started. Watching the oceans float into space would absolutely facenating to watch. Despite the fact that electricity and magnitism is 10^23th something times stronger, the majority of intersteller objects are held together by gravity. Electricity and magnitism is largely a product of such large objects. There might be several space entities that would cause the planets and or stars to remain held together but E&M forces (perhaps some stars) but I don't think it would last for long.

Someone needs to create a mathimatical model for this and plug it into a computer. Is there an astrophysicist in the house? lol.

Call me up in 10 years

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Just for the sake of doing so.... I'm going to say the universe will explode and all that will be left is a bucket of glitter in which 7 dragon balls are hidden

 

[Flavus Aquila]

What would kill us first?

Suffocation. The atmosphere dissipating into the near vacuum of space within a few seconds?

Heat. The sudden explosion of giga-tons of hot magma suddenly being released from the earth?

Radiation. The sudden and severe exposure to gamma radiation in the moments as the Sun, expanding at a phenomenal rate, exposes it's core?

 

[Barnabas]

Has April jacked your account?

 

[Ecton]

Lol, Barnabas!!!!

Space-time would suddenly be flat. This would reduce all space-time to a single frame of reference. We would suddenly find ourselves in a truly Newtonian univese, with one caveat, it would be empty.

 

[Phoenix Down]

What would kill us first?

Suffocation. The atmosphere dissipating into the near vacuum of space within a few seconds?

Heat. The sudden explosion of giga-tons of hot magma suddenly being released from the earth?

Radiation. The sudden and severe exposure to gamma radiation in the moments as the Sun, expanding at a phenomenal rate, exposes it's core?

I'm voting heat and radiation first... Suffocation takes seconds while the other two with enough intensity can kill us quicker.

 

[enfp can be shy]

Has April jacked your account?

enfp may be shy

 

[TheLastMohican]

Every star in the universe would go explode at the same time. That settles pretty much everything else. Indy described some very interesting effects, but unfortunately we would never get to see them, because the planets would not last long enough. The enormous gaps between galaxy clusters might never fill; we would probably end up with a splotchy soup at near absolute zero.

 

[Odyne]

p.s. this should destroy the fabric of the space-time continuum, and i'm not sure whether time and mass would have a meaning anymore?

Mass is what defines gravity. So for gravity to disappear, mass will have to disappear, and we're talking about ALL mass.

Meaning the Universe will have to disappear first in order for gravity to disappear.

As long as there is mass, there will be gravity. Not the other way around.

 

[IndigoSensor]

Mass is what defines gravity. So for gravity to disappear, mass will have to disappear, and we're talking about ALL mass.

Meaning the Universe will have to disappear first in order for gravity to disappear.

As long as there is mass, there will be gravity. Not the other way around.

Yes we're aware of this. However what if in theory you could do it without deleting mass? Also if the theory of a graviton particle is true, what if you could simply delete those?

It's more or less the idea that you are playing god, and you see the equation for gravity and hit it with a hammer. The problem is it might effect other classical mechanics equations that are dependent upon it and might have much stronger implications. I am not well versed in them though as you are so you would have better insight.

 

[TheLastMohican]

Mass is what defines gravity. So for gravity to disappear, mass will have to disappear, and we're talking about ALL mass.

Meaning the Universe will have to disappear first in order for gravity to disappear.

As long as there is mass, there will be gravity. Not the other way around.

The universe is not made of mass.

Besides, gravity is a force. It's an attraction between masses (or, as Einstein reframed it, a property of space

 

[arbygil]

Is it possible to stop gravity in one location, say, one planet? I doubt it...but then, I sucked at high school physics.

 

[Odyne]

Yes we're aware of this. However what if in theory you could do it without deleting mass? Also if the theory of a graviton particle is true, what if you could simply delete those?

It's more or less the idea that you are playing god, and you see the equation for gravity and hit it with a hammer. The problem is it might effect other classical mechanics equations that are dependent upon it and might have much stronger implications. I am not well versed in them though as you are so you would have better insight.

oright, I see. lol *throws Newtonian mechanics out of the window*

If gravity suddenly disappears then what you and TLM mentioned would most probably happen. Stars might explode, planets would drift off their orbit. Earth would lose it atmosphere, and we would suffocate, freeze, or burn alive.

I think the earth would also stop rotating, so we'd be stuck in either an eternity of day or an eternity of night, even an eternity of a certain season. But then we would still need a sun for that to happen in the first place.

It will be chaotic at first, but then it would all settle in a huge soup of matter like you said.

Me thinks.

 

[Jonathan]

This would make a really great documentary. What an amazing and mind-boggling experience it would be to witness, at least in video form. It would be great to get idea of people's theories on universal zero gravity.

 

[Odyne]

Oh, also we can redefine mass and time in terms of light.

Mass: How matter interacts with light: absorbs it, reflects it, or deflects it.

Time: How fast things are moving compared to the speed of light. Or how long would light take to travel somewhere, and that would be our reference.

 

[Flavus Aquila]

I'm voting heat and radiation first... Suffocation takes seconds while the other two with enough intensity can kill us quicker.

I don't think it would be radiation, because if the dissapearance of gravity occured instantaneously throughout the universe, it would take about 8 minutes for light from the sun to reach us. I'm pretty sure we would have suffocated by then, as the atmosphere dissipated explosively into space. (or we would have been burned by errupting magma).

Every star in the universe would go explode at the same time. That settles pretty much everything else. Indy described some very interesting effects, but unfortunately we would never get to see them, because the planets would not last long enough. The enormous gaps between galaxy clusters might never fill; we would probably end up with a splotchy soup at near absolute zero.

We might get to see our atmosphere vanish, but that's probably it.

 

[Odyne]

The universe is not made of mass.

Besides, gravity is a force. It's an attraction between masses (or, as Einstein reframed it, a property of space — space curves around mass). It's not a property of mass; mass can exist without it. Although we know that enfp's particular scenario is not going to occur, there is nothing inherently impossible about gravity not existing. It's a perfectly valid thought exercise that tests our understanding of other physical laws and properties.

It isn't?

Don't we define the universe of how much mass we know exists, and how it interacts with itself?

Gravity is a force resulting from that interaction. So as long as there is mass, there should be gravity, however infinitesimal it is.

But again we define mass as the weight of matter. Which then needs gravity.

So gravity is defined by how much matter there is and how it interacts with other matter.

???

My thoughts are going haywire right now lol

Thought provoking topic. I like it. =)