Pushing
GravityNew perspectives on Le Sage’s theory of gravitation
Pushing
Gravity
New perspectives on Le Sage’s
theory of gravitation
(paperback, 316 p.; ISBN 0-9683689-7-2 )
Matthew R. Edwards (ed.)
Since Newton’s time many have proposed that gravitation arises from the absorption by material bodies of minute particles or waves filling space. Such absorption would cause bodies to be pushed into each other’s shadows. The principal early proponent of this idea was Georges-Louis Le Sage. The essays in this book explore the remarkable three hundred year saga of Le Sage’s theory, gravitational shielding and the experiments of Q. Majorana, and new and recent Le Sage Models.
To many readers of physics, the history of
theories of gravitation may be summed up approximately as follows. After a
chaotic period featuring vortex ether models and the like, gravity was at last
put on a firm scientific footing by Newton. In the following centuries
Newton’s theory saw success after success, until a few unexplained anomalies,
such as the advance of the perihelion of Mercury, paved the way for Einstein’s
General Relativity. The latter theory has remained without serious challenge to
the present day. In this grand progression, few will likely have heard of a
simple mechanical theory of gravitation, which from Newton’s time has come
down through the centuries almost unchanged. Its principal early expression was
given by Georges-Louis Le Sage of Geneva in the mid-eighteenth century.
Le Sage’s theory of gravitation has a unique place in science. For over three
centuries it has periodically attracted some of the greatest physicists of the
day, including Newton, who expressed interest in Fatio’s earlier version of
the theory, and later Kelvin, who attempted to modernize the theory in the late
1800’s. At the same time, the theory has drawn just as many notable critics,
including Euler, Maxwell and Poincaré. Despite frequent and spirited
obituaries, Le Sage’s theory in various guises has always survived to
challenge the prevailing wisdom of the day. Now, at the start of this new
century, it appears that the theory may be on the rise again.
The reasons for the present resurgence of Le Sage-type models of gravitation are
their simplicity and depth—features desirable in any physical theory. Whereas
Newton’s theory and (later) Einstein’s relativity were essentially
mathematical descriptions of the motions of bodies in gravitation, Le Sage’s
theory attempts to arrive at the very cause of gravity. The basic idea runs like
this. Space is filled with minute particles or waves of some description which
strike bodies from all sides. A tiny fraction of the incident waves or particles
is absorbed in this process. A single body will not move under this influence,
but where two bodies are present each will be progressively urged into the
shadow of the other. If any theory of gravity can be said to satisfy Occam’s
Razor, it is surely Le Sage’s. Its simplicity and clarity guarantee that it
will be conjured up again and again by those who seek to understand gravity’s
mechanism, as opposed to merely its rules.
Other reasons also exist for the recent upsurge of interest. Over the last half
century, it has become increasingly common to view space once more as endowed
with energy-dense fields, known variously as the zero-point fields, the quantum
vacuum and many other names. Since the existence of such fields is the central
postulate of Le Sage-type theories, the status of such theories has
correspondingly risen. In addition, parallel veins of research in geophysics and
cosmology also seem to point to in the direction of Le Sage. As Halton Arp
discusses in his foreword, the geophysical link is to the theory of earth
expansion (as opposed to conventional plate tectonics), while the cosmological
link is to alternative cosmologies (rather than the Standard Model).
The first papers in the book explore the impressive three hundred-year history
of Le Sage’s theory. In the opening paper Evans discusses Le Sage’s own
contribution and the discouraging reception that Le Sage received from the
scientists of his day, such as Euler and Laplace. Le Sage was in fact fighting a
trend in the eighteenth century away from mechanical models of gravitation. The
setting for his theory was actually much more favourable in the previous
century, when another Genevan, Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, burst upon the scene
with a very similar theory. Fatio’s role is discussed by van Lunteren in his
paper. Newton’s own views on gravitation, which at times were very close to Le
Sage’s and Fatio’s, are discussed in the reprinted paper by Aiton. The paper
by Edwards discusses the attempt by Kelvin and others to revive Le Sage’s
theory in the late 1800’s, when the theory was shown to be compatible with the
kinetic theory of gases. This paper also has an overview of some twentieth
century developments in the theory.
The modern wave of Le Sage-type theories is represented in the next group of
papers. (While in later centuries it became common for authors to use
“Lesage” or “LeSage”, in this book we shall adopt the original
spelling.) In these papers there will be seen to be many points of agreement,
but also many differences. Some of the models, such as those of Van Flandern,
Slabinski and Mingst and Stowe, are corpuscular models in the direct tradition
of Le Sage. Others, such as those of Kierein, Edwards and Popescu-Adamut,
explore electromagnetic analogues of Le Sage’s theory. Historically, there
have been countless names given to the Le Sage corpuscles or waves. In some of
the papers the authors have adopted the term ‘graviton’ to refer to these
entities.
The paper by Radzievskii and Kagalnikova provides a good overview of Le Sage’s
theory as well as a detailed mathematical description of a modern Le Sage
theory. In their model, the gravitational force is propagated by material
particles travelling at c. This paper was originally published in 1960 and later
translated in a U.S. government technical report, of which the present paper is
a slightly corrected version. Dr. Radzievskii, although reported to be ill at
this time, nonetheless expressed his strong support for this project.
In his paper, Van Flandern develops Le Sage’s theory from a modern standpoint
and explores its relations to such problems as the existence of gravitational
shielding, the advance of the perihelion of Mercury and heating effects. As did
Le Sage, he argues that the absence of observed gravitational aberration is
explicable with the gravitons having superluminal velocities.
A potentially major advance in Le Sage-type theories is given in the paper by
Slabinski. In the past, these theories have generally supposed that the
gravitons incident on bodies are either totally scattered or totally absorbed.
In the former case, no gravitational force results, while in the latter an
excessive heating of bodies is expected. Slabinski shows that, provided some
small fraction of the gravitons is absorbed, the scattered gravitons can indeed
generate a significant force.
In his paper, Kierein suggests that the Le Sage medium is in the form of very
long wavelength radiation, as had earlier been proposed by Charles Brush. Such
radiation penetrates matter easily and, in Kierein’s model, a portion of the
radiation traversing bodies is converted to mass through a Compton effect
mechanism. The absorption of radiation leads to gravitation, while the mass
increase is linked to earth expansion.
The paper by Edwards proposes that the absorption of gravitons by bodies in a Le
Sage mechanism is proportional to the bodies’ velocities as measured in the
preferred reference frame defined by the gravitons (essentially the same frame
as the cosmic background radiation). Graviton absorption increases the mass and
rest energy of the bodies, which therefore lose velocity in the preferred frame.
Overall there is conservation of energy (and thus no heating effect) since the
rest energy gained by the bodies equals the kinetic energy lost.
The paper by Toivo Jaakkola is adapted from a longer paper that was originally
published posthumously in the memorial issue of Apeiron dedicated to him. It
presents Jaakkola’s Le Sage-type model and many observations and conclusions
about Le Sage theories in general. The paper by Veselov, reprinted from
Geophysical Journal, presents a novel type of Le Sage mechanism, which Veselov
links to earth expansion and various astrophysical phenomena.
In their paper, Mingst and Stowe present a corpuscular Le Sage model. Dynamical
aspects of this and other Le Sage models are discussed in the companion paper by
Stowe. In her paper, Popescu-Adamut reviews and updates the
“electrothermodynamical theory of gravitation” proposed in the 1980’s by
her father, Iosif Adamut.
The next several papers consider the question of gravitational shielding, with
special reference to the work of Quirino Majorana. Unlike Le Sage, Majorana
proposed that matter itself emits an energy flux of some kind which produces
gravitational effects on other bodies. Just as in Le Sage’s theory, however,
this flux would be attenuated in passing through other bodies. Majorana
performed a famous set of experiments which appeared to demonstrate such a
shielding effect. This work is discussed in Martins’ first paper. In his
second paper, Martins examines the links between Majorana’s theory and Le
Sage’s. Whereas Majorana had thought it possible to distinguish experimentally
between his own theory and Le Sage’s, Martins proves that this supposition is
false, i.e., that the predictions of both theories in shielding experiments are
precisely the same. This finding is in keeping with the notion that the theories
of Le Sage and Majorana may actually be two sides of the same coin. In some Le
Sage-type theories, the Le Sage flux upon interacting with matter is converted
into a secondary flux, which itself does not transmit the gravitational force.
Mathematically, such models can be made to resemble Majorana-type models if the
primary fluxes are disregarded and the secondary fluxes are modelled as
transmitting momentum in the negative sense.
Majorana’s experiments were never repeated, however, and other confirmation of
the existence of gravitational shielding has been very hard to come by. Some of
the attempts to find such shielding are reviewed in the paper by Unnikrishnan
and Gillies. While evidence for shielding at the present time appears limited,
it can only be stated that the question remains open both theoretically and
experimentally. For instance, there is the exciting possibility that the Zürich
apparatus for measuring G, discussed by these authors, could also be used to
directly repeat the experiments of Majorana.
In their paper von Borzeszkowski and Treder discuss possible non-relativistic
effects in gravitation, such as absorption of gravity, but within the context of
relativistic theories of gravitation. One such theory, originally proposed by
Riemann, is examined in the following paper by Treder.
In his paper, Kokus examines the many unusual patterns in earthquakes and other
seismic events and discusses the role of alternate theories of gravitation in
accounting for them. He argues that many of the patterns can be accounted for in
expanding earth or pulsating earth models. Buonomano, in his paper, discusses
the possible roles of a Le Sage-type medium in quantum physics. The book
concludes with a historical discussion by Hathaway of attempts to manipulate
gravitation.
Collectively, the papers in this book show that the remarkable saga of Le
Sage’s theory of gravitation may be entering a new and exciting phase. In the
new century, it may even pass that Le Sage’s theory comes into prominence once
more. If it does, it would not be entirely surprising. It is, after all, the
simplest theory of gravitation.
Preface
Halton Arp
Foreword: The Observational Impetus for Le Sage Gravity
James Evans
Gravity in the Century of Light: Sources, Construction and Reception of Le
Sage’s Theory of Gravitation
Frans van Lunteren
Nicolas Fatio de Duillier on the Mechanical Cause of Universal Gravitation
E.J. Aiton
Newton’s Aether-Stream Hypothesis and the Inverse Square Law of Gravitation
Matthew R. Edwards
Le Sage’s Theory of Gravity: the Revival by Kelvin and Some Later Developments
V.V. Radzievskii and I.I. Kagalnikova
The Nature of Gravitation
Tom Van Flandern
Gravity
Victor J. Slabinski
Force, Heat and Drag in a Graviton Model
John Kierein
Gravitation as a Compton Effect Redshift of Long Wavelength Background Radiation
Matthew R. Edwards
Induction of Gravitation in Moving Bodies
Toivo Jaakkola
Action-at-a-Distance and Local Action in Gravitation
K.E. Veselov
Chance Coincidences or Natural Phenomena
Barry Mingst and Paul Stowe
Deriving Newton’s Gravitational Law from a Le Sage Mechanism
Paul Stowe
Dynamic Effects in Le Sage Models
Nedelia Popescu-Adamut
The Electro-Thermodynamic Theory of Gravitation
Roberto de Andrade Martins
Majorana’s Experiments on Gravitational Absorption
Roberto de Andrade Martins
Gravitational Absorption According to the Hypotheses of Le Sage and Majorana
C.S. Unnikrishnan and G.T. Gillies
Constraints on Gravitational Shielding
H.-H. v. Borzeszkowski and H.-J. Treder
Non-Relativistic Effects in Gravitation
H.-J. Treder
Gravitational Ether and Riemann’s Theory of Gravity
Martin Kokus
Alternate Theories of Gravity and Geology in Earthquake Prediction
Vincent Buonomano
Co-operative Phenomena as a Physical Paradigm for Relativity, Gravitation and
Quantum Mechanics
G.D. Hathaway
A Brief Survey of Gravity Control Experiments
Matthew R. Edwards studied biology, biochemistry and plant ecology at McMaster University, York University and the University of Saskatchewan. Since 1983 he has been at the Gerstein Science Information Centre of the University of Toronto. He has diverse research interests and has been the author of several articles on cosmology and the origin and early evolution of life.