Volume 1 • Issue 1.3 May 29, 1998
(C) John Reed
We feel an attraction to the Earth
We observe an ordered universe
Can we define what we see, in terms of what we feel?
Gravity 1
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... the only component of weight that figures to differentiate a local terrestrial object is the rest mass of the object itself. Any mass moving at a horizontal to the vertical direction of free fall can counter the attraction to the Earth with a velocity that depends only on its distance from the Earth's center. The equivalence of free fall acceleration across terrestrial mass magnitudes allows any mass magnitude to occupy any Earth orbit. The constant acceleration of gravity across mass magnitudes enables this.
Two objects of different mass, in stable orbit about the Earth, at the same velocity, will orbit at equal distances from the center of the Earth. It follows then, that local terrestrial mass magnitudes are not only insignificant in free fall, but they are also insignificant in stable orbit. They each are the consequence of the same principle.
Therefore, although we can figure the force required to accelerate a small terrestrial mass into orbit, different masses will require different forces to obtain the same orbit. Rigorously speaking then, we cannot determine an object's unknown mass from its orbital behavior. Consider, if this were not so, that is: if the orbit depended fundamentally, in any way, on the mass of an object, we could have no constant free fall acceleration across mass magnitudes, within a time controlled field. Since free fall and the conic sections in the sky, do not differentiate between object mass magnitudes, as a matter of physical principle, our assumption that the planet-Sun attraction is proportional to the gravitational attraction we feel, and quantify against terrestrial mass magnitudes, appears to be a conclusion that is without justification as a matter of physical principle.
If, as a matter of principle in a time controlled field, a planet's mass could be deduced from its orbit, we could not have the principle of the equivalent acceleration across mass magnitudes at free fall. Any proportionality between the masses of the planets and stars, and the local inertial forces, would be the result of an unlikely coincidence. Consequently the idea that [mA = Ma] has no compelling justification, and is forbidden as a principle of physical law.
Even so, with Newton's third law, we have assigned a mass magnitude to the planets and Sun according to the distance and time characteristics of their orbits, and in Einstein's relativity, we have extended the notion for gravitational mass, which we feel, and define in terms of inertial mass, which we measure, together with its defined equivalence to inertial mass, to represent a controlling force for the entire universe. Even though inertial masses of different magnitudes may function undetected, in the same orbit...
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