What causes gravity? Can it be created artificially?
91084
jgardn said "The vertical growth of plants is actually stimulated by sunlight."\n\nThe vertical growth of plants is due entirely to the effects of gravity. You can demonstrate this yourself in a number of ways. The simplest is just to take some bean seeds and germinate them in the dark. No matter how often you turn them they will always turn upwards, depsite having no light at all. You can then place the seedlings in a box with alight source beneath them or beside them. Athough the seedlings will grow somwhat towards the light they will continue to grow primarily upwards.\n\n\nPlants will grow towards light, but that is not what determines vertical growth.
157319
I'm interested in what kind of answers you'll get to this question.  The fact of the matter is, no one really knows what gravity is or where it gets it's energy from.  One of the few things that are known about gravity is that it is not effect by space and time like light.
836797
If you are asking about anti-gravity cos you've seen an episode of star trek who's anti gravity engines run on anti matter then the answer is NO.\nI saw a program on the Sci-fi channel a few years back and an American guy had made a circular pad with about 1 metre radius which once turned on you could put any thing on it and it would just float in mid air, this guy just built it at his own leisure.\n\nThe question of moving at light speed is impossible for nearly anything except light, scientist now believe that it would be more feasible to bend space around an object so it would instantaneously leave one point in space and reappear in another
1044543
General Theory of Relativity:\n\nA mass in space creates an indention much like a bowling ball on a trampoline.  Its this indention that is the cause of gravity.  If a marble were to roll across the trampoline into that indention, it would take a curve path and eventually fall into the bowling ball.  This is what happens when you fall to the Earth: your body is in a sense sliding on the curvature of space-time.
1030966
Artificial gravity in space is created using something called centripetal force. Most people call this centrifugal force and assume it flings things outward from the center of motion, but this is a misconception.\n\nWhat is actually happending when you are on a playground merry go round, going through a loop in a roller coaster, or are on a space station of the future, is this:\n\nAll objects, when set in motion, want to go in a straight line. If you attach a clay ball to a string, and swing it around in a circle, and the string breaks, the clay ball does not fly outward from the center of revolution, but it flies out tangent to the radius of the circle from the point that the string broke at. To see what a tangent line is, draw a circle, then pick a point on the line of the circle and draw a staight line....kind of like if you were to draw a ball sitting on a table, the table is tangent to the ball. \n\nSo, once the string breaks the clay ball will no longer go in a circular motion but in a straight line (though here on Earth gravity would have it fall the the floor of course). \n\nNow, the only reason the clay ball travels in a circular motion is because of the string. Every time the ball tries to go in a striaght line, the string yanks it back in a different direction. If you could see the forces at one point in time as this is occuring, you'd see that the force of the string is actually pulling the ball towards the center of motion. This force is called the centripetal force and it is an inward force.\n\nThe same thing applies when you are on a futuristic space station. Though there isn't a string attached to you, your body wants to move in a straight line, tangent to any given point along the circular path you are traveling, and the centripetal force that prevents this is coming from the floor of the space station, pushing you inward towards the center of motion.\n\nIf suddenly the floor were to break away, you'd fly out on a path tangent to that point.\n\nSo, to answer your question, if the space station and core were able to spin seperately, it'd need to be the outer part of the soace station, if I understand your question correctly.
1054239
no it doesn't affect gravity.  it's a double reversal, so everything is perceived right side up.  hold something in front of your face.  then turn it upside down, that's how your eyes see it, flip it around again (notice how it's right side up now?) this is how your brain sees it.\n\nit's all cool, you won't fall off the face of the earth...  ;-)
433647
Here is the actual explanation to gravity, in simple terms:\n\nFor hundreds of years nobody understood where the gravitational force came from, they only knew that it was attractive, but what caused it was a mystery.  Newton himself, the man who discovered the gravitational equation, didn't have an answer.\n\nEinstein set out to discover the theory that explained actually caused objects to attract one another.  He succeeded in his famous General Theory of Relativity.  What does the theory say?  It says gravity is a result of of objects following curved space-time.  For example, imagine the sun is a bowling ball, and a trampoline is space.  (This is a simplified model since the trampoline is two dimensional)  Place the sun, the ball, at the center of the trampoline and it will make an indention.  Now imagine a marble rolling across the trampoline's surface.  When the marble, which could be the Earth, rolls into the curved part of the trampoline, it's path will start to curve around the ball.  \n\nSo, it isn't that the sun is magically pulling on the Earth by some mysterious invisible arm.  The Earth is simply caught in the Sun's indention of space-time.  \n\nWhy doesn't the Earth spiral into the Sun?  Two reasons: the Earth is constantly trying to go in a straight line while the curved space is causing it to want to spiral towards the sun.  As a result of this conflict, the Earth's path is a compromise between the two: it goes in a circle.  \n\nThe second reason is there is no friction in space to slow the Earth down, so it keeps the necessary speed to stay in its elliptical orbit.  If the Earth were to go slower, it would eventually spiral into the sun.  If it were to go faster, it would leave the Sun's indention in a straight line.
324067
No. Gravity has to do with the mass of objects--you have some too.
247359
Mass interacting with gravity
997785
All mass produces gravity.  Ever massful particle, every atom exerts some gravitational force on other massful particles.\n\nPhysicists are still trying to produce the details how gravitational fields behave, theories of gravitons (the particles when mediate the field), etc.\n\nA short description of theories and current thinking is available here at Wikipedia:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity\n\nAnother good source of information would be to read "A Briefer History of Time" by Stephen Hawking.
644891
No, because gravity is inflicted by the mass of an object... and we have a very massive object near by that will outweigh any gravity caused by a humble golf ball or a slightly proud bowling ball: it's called the Earth.\n\nBasically, gravity is a force of attraction, so a large object will attract a small object. That is what keeps the moon orbiting the Earth, and the planets orbiting the Sun. Even here on Earth objects are attracted to each other, but the Earth's gravity makes that force almost impossible to measure or detect.
270647
Gravity is a term to explain a phenomenon. The theory of gravity is a theory to explain a fact. The pull between bodies(known as gravity) is a fact.\n\nWe can measure this pull with a good degree of accuricy since the days of newton. Yet untill this moment we don't have a complete explanation as to why gravity occurs!\n\nNewton didn't really explain gravity, he just offered methods to measure its effect. Modern physics describe gravity as a result of the bend in the fabric of space-time.More theories will develop later.\nThat's what science is about, offering explanations, then making them better with time, then even better and so on. There is no best of final explanation ever, but there are always better ones that could be used to make life easier.
1110928
Einstein explained gravity as a warp in the time-space continuum.  The best explanation I've ever seen was at a museum.  It's hard to explain with words, but imagine a square piece of fabric stretched taut on all 4 edges.  Now, place a weight (a ball, say, to represent a planet) in the center of that fabric.  It causes the fabric to stretch, and distort.  And any small items (marbles, say) that get in the area near the ball will roll toward the ball.
703456
I don't know what exactly is your question! If anti-gravity could be manipulated ever, i think if would be very useful for us, maybe even in interstellar travels.
29100
There is no known anti-gravity, only gravity.  It is a monopolar force.  Even anti-matter has regular gravity rather than anti-gravity.\n\nTo itsgow_reloaded: free-fall/weightlessness is not the same as anti-gravity.  One would expect antigravity to repel mass, as it would be the opposite (not merely the absence) of gravity.  It would require that there be positive curvature of space-time.
801793
and gravity does what?\n\nand why don't you fall off?
1178364
Where do people get the idea that the rotation of the earth causes gravity?  There is gravity because every mass in the universe attracts every other mass. Spinning has nothing to do with it. The magnetic poles don't have anything to do with causing gravity either.\n\nDoesn't anyone study science?