Summary
This essay proposes a novel idea that all mass in the universe is expanding, and that this expansion would be perceived as an attractive force, possibly as gravity. The essay also suggests that the universe could be closed and curved like a Klein bottle, which allows for the expansion of mass without increasing the size of the universe. The essay uses an animation to illustrate how expanding mass would appear as an attractive force to observers within the system.
Paper
Expanding Mass Observed as an Attractive Force of Gravity Postulate
by Tom Lynch, 1997 04 10, minor revisions 2011 02 15
This essay explains how observers in a system of expanding particles will view the particles as mysteriously attracting each other rather than seeing them as expanding. This idea challenges the conventional understanding of gravity as a fundamental force of nature.
Given the following two postulates:
- That each and every particle in the universe is expanding.
- Without an external force, all particles remain on their current path, as described by Newton and Einstein (the mass/energy - space time interaction isn't modeled here).
It follows that we cannot build a ruler that is also expanding. When using a ruler that is expanding at the same rate as inertial particles, the net effect is that we observe, using our expanding ruler, that particles of constant size approach each other until they collide.
Consider the following analogy. Suppose that two balloons are placed above gas helium bottles and are being filled. So initially we have the following picture:
Figure 1: Expansion level at time t0
I have added a ruler above the bottles. Each balloon measures one unit across on the ruler. The distance between the balloons is two units.
Now consider the picture at time t1 where the balloons and the ruler have doubled in size:
Figure 2: Expansion level at time t1
The balloons used to measure one unit across on the ruler, and they still do because the ruler has expanded at the same rate. Note however, as the balloons have doubled in size, the distance between them is only ΒΌ of what it used to be. The distance between the balloons using our expanded ruler is now one half unit. The centers of the balloons have not moved.
Had we scaled the picture so that one unit on the ruler was a constant size on the paper, we would have witnessed that two balloons started two units apart, and they maintained their size but came closer together under some magical force of attraction.
The animation below shows the same system from two different points of view. In the top blue section, the observer is outside the system. In the bottom red section, the observer is in the system. The observer outside the system sees the balloons expand. The observer in the system sees them attract. In both cases, the center points of the balloons remain fixed to the grid as there are no forces applied that would give them momentum.
Click on the image below to play the animation. This first animation is of two balloons being inflated as seen by an observer outside the system.
This next animation is the same system as above, though from an the point of view of an observer in the system. In this animation the system has been scaled so that the balloons remain constant size. Notice how the observer in the system witnesses an attractive force between the balloons.
A Circular Universe Explanation
No explanation for the expansion is required for the theory to be a postulated model for gravity; however, interesting explanations are possible. For example, it could be that every particle or point of space in the Universe is expanding because **the most fundamental element in the Universe is the Universe itself**, and **the Universe is expanding**. In other words, in the very small one begins to view the very large.
A similar explanation would be that of a **recursive universe**, i.e. a universe made of particles undergoing their own big bangs.