Experiment to Detect Directional Gravity

Andrew Johnson has just published a new book, this time about Earth and the possibility that it might be hollow. It’s a good read, freely available as a PDF on his site. I get a mention in it due to my work on gravity and its possible relationship with capacitance. For reasons that I explain in Universe of Particles, I suspect that charged matter has stronger gravity than neutral matter.

This suspicion can be partially validated, or roundly refuted, with a simple experiment. There’s no need for a huge, fully charged capacitor. All that’s needed is an aircraft capable of smooth flight, a sensitive scale for gravity measures and a good altitude meter. Gravity readings can then be made at different altitudes.

Newton’s assumption

If gravity is a directionless monopole as Newton suggested, we should see no deviation from Newton’s predictions. However, if gravity has any kind of directionality, we will get deviations because Newton’s theory is predicated on a directionless model of gravity.

If gravity has a directional component to it, the center of gravity will not be at the center of gravitational bodies when measured at the surface. It will be closer to the observer, as illustrated in this diagram:

The center of gravity will drift towards the center of such bodies as we move higher, and will be pretty much exactly at the center as we reach high altitudes. Observer A sees the center of gravity at a, observer B sees it at b and observer C sees it at c.

Implications of directional gravity

The implication of this is that gravity will drop off with altitude at a faster rate than predicted by Newton. Orbits close to gravitational bodies will be faster than predicted by Newton. The Mercury anomaly may in this way be explained as a consequence of directional gravity. There might not be any need for curved space-time as suggested by Einstein, or faster clocks as suggested by me.

If gravity does in fact drop off quicker with altitude than Newton predicted, we can conclude that gravity has a directional component. This would give support to the capacitance model of gravity because charged capacitors have directional properties. It would also give support to other theories such as Peter Woodhead’s suggested solution and the dipole model promoted by Wal Thornhill, because they too give gravity a directional component.

This simple experiment would clarify unresolved issues related to gravity. However, to the best of my knowledge, there has been no airborne gravity readings with the express purpose of verifying Newton’s predictions. We are still assuming that Newton was right about near surface gravity because he was right about high altitude orbits.