Posted by Michael Dayah (68.155.1.133) on December 30, 2002 at 19:42:51:
In Reply to: Gravity: Does it exist? posted by Z on December 19, 2002 at 15:39:01:
: I really don't want to believe that gravity exists...100 most infuential people of the millenium past. #2 is Newton...
Gravity does exist and Newton accurately described how it behaves as far as classical mechanics. I think Newton's genius was that he saw what others found too obvious to see. Before him, no one asked why objects fall toward the ground. They just thought, what else could happen? They have to fall and that's that. That his equation doesn't supply a mechanism doesn't negate this.
It sounds like what you find to be in question is the nature of gravity—whether it's a particle, superstring loop, the warping of space, or the effect of something else (everything expanding?) that manifests as an apparent force.
It's encouraging that you're thinking creatively and I like that you want to imagine the universe is simpler than it appears by eliminating the complexity of an additional force, explaining it as a result of other already-understood interactions. Choosing the simplest explanation among many that explain the same thing is a key part of the philosophy of science, so it sounds like you have a very scientific mind.
Sadly, gravity doesn't really fit perfectly into any of the current theories, and because it's so weak, it's hard to conduct experiments with. There was an experiment to calculate its speed of propagation, but I don't remember hearing the results. I think it'd be best to start by investigating current explanations of gravity from Ph.D.s that are based on their combined knowledge and work forward (or backward, depending on how you look at it) from there.