h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you laid all the people, who have contributed to this thread, ene-to-end - nobody would be the least bit surprised.

well the one who had their end laid next to my end would be

Someone has to be last.

A little known but useless fact is that IBM stands for "Insh'Allah, Bookrah, Mafish" roughly translated "By the grace of God, tomorrow, nothing." The Middle East promise.

Llamas are very closely related to camels. In fact a camel cross llama was bred in Dubai in 1997. It was called Rama the Cama.

Yay Morty for getting in with the camel talk

The camel is the 10th most mentioned animal in the bible (56 times in Old Testament and 6 times in New Testament)

The sexual urge of the camel,
Is stronger than anyone thinks,
One night in the height of his passion,
He decided to bugger the sphinx.
Now the sphinx has a very small anus,
That is filled with the sands of the Nile,
Which explains the hump on the camel,
And the sphinx’s inscrutable smile.

Four finger KitKats do not have a foil wrapper.

They don't? Turn your back for five minutes...

Anyway, I've had no response to my doubts about gravity having a mesurable speed. Does this mean I win?

Congratulations award yourself KitKat, ywo fingers, if you wish to experiment into the modulus of radial bending and the forging properties of the stapler.

I do not believe we understand gravity so well as to know whether or not it has a "speed".

There is some theoretical basis for so called "graviton's" but no evidence.

And they would seem to have to go the long way between objects to work anyway (the backs of two people facing each other as it were).

One example I vaguely remember reading would posit that gravity does indeed work instantaneously. From what I can recall it posed the example of a spinning disc or carousel. Two observers on opposite sides of a rapidly spinning carousel experience a force pulling them apart. Everyone knows and understands this centrifugal "force". (the reaction to each ones velocity being changed constantly to remain in circular motion). However if we consider these two observers frame of reference to be inside the carousel then relatively speaking, the universe is spinning AROUND THEM. This would mean the "force" they experience is the result of the gravity of the combined mass of the universe spinning around them. Otherwise they would not feel a force pulling them apart.

(I read this example very long ago, so I may have missed some details).

Anyway, I would not be so bold to state as fact what the speed of gravity may or may not be... It's not very well understood as yet.

Does this mean I can keep my KitKat?

I do believe it does.

Or at any rate, I share your doubts.

Glad I'm not the only one.

It would have seriously damaged my geek cred if I'd been totally wrong.

Quote:

One example I vaguely remember reading would posit that gravity does indeed work instantaneously. From what I can recall it posed the example of a spinning disc or carousel. Two observers on opposite sides of a rapidly spinning carousel experience a force pulling them apart. Everyone knows and understands this centrifugal "force". (the reaction to each ones velocity being changed constantly to remain in circular motion). However if we consider these two observers frame of reference to be inside the carousel then relatively speaking, the universe is spinning AROUND THEM. This would mean the "force" they experience is the result of the gravity of the combined mass of the universe spinning around them. Otherwise they would not feel a force pulling them apart.

End Quote

Not trure as doubling your rotation speed causes an increase (4x) in the Force this cannot be due to all the masses increase the fundemental force at work here would probably be electrostatic (weak). NOT gravity.

Gravity does travel at the speed of light as Einstein showed that absolutly nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. This is due to E=MC^2 maybe I can prove the result from this but it will invovle a lot of calculus.

Gravity does not travel faster than light even if a graviton is a massless paticle (like a photon) it will still be limited by this speed limit.

But we're still not sure it is something that 'travels' at all.

That KitKat has been temporarily withdrawn.

All you're doing is using a theory to 'prove' a theory, which any serious scientist will tell you is a pointless activity as theory is not the same as fact.
There is also the theory that the speed of light is not actually constant, if I wanted I could use that to 'prove' that Einstien was completely wrong. But I won't, because until it is completely and unarguably proven one way or the other it would be pointless.

Besides, I've got my KitKat now and I'm not giving it up for anyone!

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Even if gravitons exist at all.