History of gravitational theory

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In physics, theories of gravitation postulate mechanisms of interaction governing the movements of
bodies with mass. There have been numerous theories of gravitation since ancient times.

Contents
[hide]

1Antiquity
2Modern era
o 2.1Newton's theory of gravitation
o 2.2Mechanical explanations of gravitation
o 2.3General relativity
o 2.4Gravity and quantum mechanics
3See also
4References

Antiquity[edit]
See also: Aristotelian physics
In the 4th century BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that there is
no effect or motion without a cause. The cause of the downward motion of heavy bodies, such as
the element earth, was related to their nature, which caused them to move downward toward the
center of the universe, which was their natural place. Conversely, light bodies such as the
element fire, move by their nature upward toward the inner surface of the sphere of the Moon. Thus
in Aristotle's system heavy bodies are not attracted to the earth by an external force of gravity, but
tend toward the center of the universe because of an inner gravitas or heaviness.[1][2]
In Book VII of his De Architectura, the Roman engineer and architect Vitruvius contends that gravity
is not dependent on a substance's "weight" but rather on its "nature" (cf. specific gravity).
If the quicksilver is poured into a vessel, and a stone weighing one hundred pounds is laid upon it,
the stone swims on the surface, and cannot depress the liquid, nor break through, nor separate it. If
we remove the hundred pound weight, and put on a scruple of gold, it will not swim, but will sink to
the bottom of its own accord. Hence, it is undeniable that the gravity of a substance depends not on
the amount of its weight, but on its nature.[3]

Brahmagupta, the Indian astronomer and mathematician whose work influenced Arab mathematics
in the 9th century, held the view that the earth was spherical and that it attracted objects. Al
Hamdn and Al Biruni quote Brahmagupta saying "Disregarding this, we say that the earth on all its
sides is the same; all people on the earth stand upright, and all heavy things fall down to the earth by
a law of nature, for it is the nature of the earth to attract and to keep things, as it is the nature of
water to flow, that of fire to burn, and that of the wind to set in motion. If a thing wants to go deeper
down than the earth, let it try. The earth is the only low thing, and seeds always return to it, in
whatever direction you may throw them away, and never rise upwards from the earth."[4][5]

Modern era[edit]
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During the 17th century, Galileo found that, counter to Aristotle's teachings, all objects accelerated
equally when falling.
In the late 17th century, as a result of Robert Hooke's suggestion that there is a gravitational force
which depends on the inverse square of the distance,[6] Isaac Newton was able
to mathematically derive Kepler's three kinematic laws of planetary motion, including
the elliptical orbits for the six then known planets and the Moon:
"I deduced that the forces which keep the planets in their orbs must be reciprocally as the squares of
their distances from the centres about which they revolve, and thereby compared the force requisite
to keep the moon in her orb with the force of gravity at the surface of the earth and found them to
answer pretty nearly."

Isaac Newton, 1666

So Newton's original formula was:

where the symbol means "is proportional to".

To make this into an equal-sided formula or equation, there needed
to be a multiplying factor or constant that would give the correct
force of gravity no matter the value of the masses or distance
between them. This gravitational constant was first measured in
1797 by Henry Cavendish.
In 1907 Albert Einstein, in what was described by him as "the
happiest thought of my life", realized that an observer who is falling
from the roof of a house experiences no gravitational field. In other
words, gravitation was exactly equivalent to acceleration. Between
1911 and 1915 this idea, initially stated as the Equivalence
principle, was formally developed into Einstein's theory of general
relativity.
Newton's theory of gravitation[edit]
Main article: Law of universal gravitation
In 1687, English mathematician Sir Isaac
Newton published Principia, which hypothesizes the inverse-square
law of universal gravitation. In his own words, "I deduced that the
forces which keep the planets in their orbs must be reciprocally as
the squares of their distances from the centers about which they
revolve; and thereby compared the force requisite to keep the Moon
in her orb with the force of gravity at the surface of the Earth; and
found them answer pretty nearly."
Newton's theory enjoyed its greatest success when it was used to
predict the existence of Neptune based on motions of Uranus that
could not be accounted by the actions of the other planets.
Calculations by John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier both
predicted the general position of the planet, and Le Verrier's
calculations are what led Johann Gottfried Galle to the discovery of
Neptune.
Years later, it was another discrepancy in a planet's orbit that
showed Newton's theory to be inaccurate. By the end of the 19th
century, it was known that the orbit of Mercury could not be
accounted for entirely under Newtonian gravity, and all searches for
another perturbing body (such as a planet orbiting the Sun even
closer than Mercury) have been fruitless. This issue was resolved in
1915 by Albert Einstein's new general theory of relativity, which
accounted for the discrepancy in Mercury's orbit.
Paul Dirac developed the hypothesis that gravitation should have
slowly and steadily decreased over the course of the history of the
universe.[7]
Although Newton's theory has been superseded, most modern non-
relativistic gravitational calculations still use it because it is much
easier to work with and is sufficiently accurate for most applications.
Mechanical explanations of gravitation[edit]
Main article: Mechanical explanations of gravitation
The mechanical theories or explanations of the gravitation are
attempts to explain the law of gravity by aid of basic mechanical
processes, such as pushes, and without the use of any action at a
distance. These theories were developed from the 16th until the
19th century in connection with the aether theories.[8]
Ren Descartes (1644) and Christiaan Huygens (1690)
used vortices to explain gravitation. Robert Hooke (1671)
and James Challis (1869) assumed, that every body emits waves
which lead to an attraction of other bodies. Nicolas Fatio de
Duillier (1690) and Georges-Louis Le Sage (1748) proposed
a corpuscular model, using some sort of screening or shadowing
mechanism. Later a similar model was created by Hendrik Lorentz,
who used electromagnetic radiation instead of the corpuscles. Isaac
Newton (1675) and Bernhard Riemann (1853) argued that aether
streams carry all bodies to each other. Newton (1717)
and Leonhard Euler (1760) proposed a model, in which the aether
loses density near the masses, leading to a net force directing to
the bodies. Lord Kelvin (1871) proposed that every body pulsates,
which might be an explanation of gravitation and the electric
charges.
However, those models were overthrown because most of them
lead to an unacceptable amount of drag, which is not observed.
Other models are violating the energy conservation law and are
incompatible with modern thermodynamics.[9]
General relativity[edit]
Main article: Introduction to general relativity
In general relativity, the effects of gravitation are ascribed
to spacetime curvature instead of to a force. The starting point for
general relativity is the equivalence principle, which equates free fall
with inertial motion. The issue that this creates is that free-falling
objects can accelerate with respect to each other. In Newtonian
physics, no such acceleration can occur unless at least one of the
objects is being operated on by a force (and therefore is not moving
inertially).
To deal with this difficulty, Einstein proposed that spacetime is
curved by matter, and that free-falling objects are moving along
locally straight paths in curved spacetime. (This type of path is
called a geodesic). More specifically, Einstein and Hilbert
discovered the field equations of general relativity, which relate the
presence of matter and the curvature of spacetime and are named
after Einstein. The Einstein field equations are a set of
10 simultaneous, non-linear, differential equations. The solutions of
the field equations are the components of the metric tensor of
spacetime. A metric tensor describes the geometry of spacetime.
The geodesic paths for a spacetime are calculated from the metric
tensor.
Notable solutions of the Einstein field equations include:

The Schwarzschild solution, which describes spacetime

surrounding a spherically symmetric non-rotating uncharged
massive object. For compact enough objects, this solution
generated a black hole with a central singularity. For radial
distances from the center which are much greater than
the Schwarzschild radius, the accelerations predicted by the
Schwarzschild solution are practically identical to those
predicted by Newton's theory of gravity.
The ReissnerNordstrm solution, in which the central object
has an electrical charge. For charges with a geometrized length
which are less than the geometrized length of the mass of the
object, this solution produces black holes with an event
horizon surrounding a Cauchy horizon.
The Kerr solution for rotating massive objects. This solution
also produces black holes with multiple horizons.
The cosmological RobertsonWalker solution, which predicts
the expansion of the universe.
General relativity has enjoyed much success because of the way its
predictions of phenomena which are not called for by the older
theory of gravity have been regularly confirmed. For example:

General relativity accounts for the

anomalous perihelion precession of the planet Mercury.
The prediction that time runs slower at lower potentials has
been confirmed by the PoundRebka experiment, the Hafele
Keating experiment, and the GPS.
The prediction of the deflection of light was first confirmed
by Arthur Eddington in 1919, and has more recently been
strongly confirmed through the use of a quasar which passes
behind the Sun as seen from the Earth. See also gravitational
lensing.
 The time delay of light passing close to a massive object was
first identified by Irwin Shapiro in 1964 in interplanetary
spacecraft signals.
Gravitational radiation has been indirectly confirmed through
studies of binary pulsars. In 2016, the LIGO experiments
directly detected gravitational radiation from two colliding black
holes, making this the first direct observation of both the
gravitational radiation as well as black holes.
The expansion of the universe (predicted by the Robertson
Walker metric) was confirmed by Edwin Hubble in 1929.
Gravity and quantum mechanics[edit]
Main articles: Graviton and Quantum gravity
Several decades after the discovery of general relativity it was
realized that it cannot be the complete theory of gravity because it is
incompatible with quantum mechanics.[10]Later it was understood
that it is possible to describe gravity in the framework of quantum
field theory like the other fundamental forces. In this framework the
attractive force of gravity arises due to exchange
of virtual gravitons, in the same way as the electromagnetic force
arises from exchange of virtual photons.[11][12] This reproduces
general relativity in the classical limit. However, this approach fails
at short distances of the order of the Planck length.[10]
It is notable that in general relativity, gravitational radiation, which
under the rules of quantum mechanics must be composed of
gravitons, is created only in situations where the curvature of
spacetime is oscillating, such as is the case with co-orbiting objects.
The amount of gravitational radiation emitted by the solar system is
far too small to measure.
However, gravitational radiation has been observed both indirectly,
as an energy loss over time in binary pulsar systems such as PSR
1913+16, and directly by the LIGO gravitational wave observatory,
whose first detection (named GW150914) occurred on 14
September 2015[13] and matched theoretical predictions of signals
due to the inward spiral and merger of a pair of black holes. It is
believed that neutron star mergers and black hole formation may
also create detectable amounts of gravitational radiation.

See also[edit]

Gravitation portal

References[edit]
1. Jump up^ Edward Grant, The Foundations of Modern Science in
the Middle Ages, (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1996), pp. 60-
1.
2. Jump up^ Olaf Pedersen, Early Physics and Astronomy,
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Pr., 1993), p. 130
3. Jump up^ Vitruvius, Marcus Pollio (1914). "7". In Alfred A.
Howard. De Architectura libri decem[Ten Books on
Architecture]. VII. Herbert Langford Warren, Nelson Robinson
(illus), Morris Hicky Morgan. Harvard University, Cambridge:
Harvard University Press. p. 215.
4. Jump up^ Alberuni's India. London : Kegan Paul, Trench,
Trbner & Co., 1910.Electronic reproduction. Vol. 1 and 2. New
York, N.Y. : Columbia University Libraries, 2006. p. 272.
Retrieved 3 June 2014.
5. Jump up^ Kitb al-Jawharatayn al-atqatayn al-miatayn min al-
afr wa-al-bay : al-dhahab wa-al-fiah. Cairo : Mabaat Dr
al-Kutub wa-al-Wathiq al-Qawmyah bi-al-Qhirah
(Arabic:
: ) , 2004.
pp. 4344, 87. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
6. Jump up^ Cohen, I. Bernard; George Edwin Smith (2002). The
Cambridge Companion to Newton. Cambridge University Press.
pp. 1112. ISBN 978-0-521-65696-2.
7. Jump up^ Haber, Heinz (1967) [1965]. "Die Expansion der Erde"
[The expansion of the Earth]. Unser blauer Planet [Our blue
planet]. Rororo Sachbuch [Rororo nonfiction] (in German) (Rororo
Taschenbuch Ausgabe [Rororo pocket edition] ed.).
Reinbek: Rowohlt Verlag. p. 52. Der englische Physiker und
Nobelpreistrger Dirac hat [...] vor ber dreiig Jahren die
Vermutung begrndet, dass sich das universelle Ma der
Schwerkraft im Laufe der Geschichte des Universums
auerordentlich langsam, aber stetig verringert." English: "The
English physicist and Nobel laureate Dirac has [...], more than
thirty years ago, substantiated the assumption that the universal
strength of gravity decreases very slowly, but steadily over the
course of the history of the universe.
8. Jump up^ Taylor, W. B. (1876). "Kinetic Theories of
Gravitation". Smithsonian: 205282.
9. Jump up^ Zenneck, J. (1903). "Gravitation". Encyklopdie der
mathematischen Wissenschaften mit Einschluss ihrer
Anwendungen. Leipzig. 5 (1): 2567. doi:10.1007/978-3-663-
16016-8_2.
10. ^ Jump up to:a b Randall, Lisa (2005). Warped Passages:
Unraveling the Universe's Hidden Dimensions. Ecco. ISBN.
11. Jump up^ Feynman, R. P.; Morinigo, F. B.; Wagner, W. G.;
Hatfield, B. (1995). Feynman lectures on gravitation. Addison-
Wesley. ISBN 0-201-62734-5.
12. Jump up^ Zee, A. (2003). Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell.
Princeton University Press. ISBN.
13. Jump up^ Abbott, Benjamin P.; et al. (LIGO Scientific
Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration) (2016). "Observation of
Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger". Phys.
Rev. Lett. 116 (6):
061102. Bibcode:2016PhRvL.116f1102A. PMID 26918975. arXiv:
1602.03837 . doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102. Lay
summary (PDF).

[hide]
 Theories of gravitation

Newtonian gravity Newton's law of universal gravitation

(NG) History of gravitational theory

Introduction

History

Mathematics
Standard Resources
General relativity
Tests
(GR)
Post-Newtonian formalism

Linearized gravity

ADM formalism

GibbonsHawkingYork boundary term

Classical theories of gravitation

Paradigms Quantum gravity

Theory of everything

EinsteinCartan

Bimetric theories

Gauge theory gravity

Teleparallelism

Composite gravity

Alternatives to f(R) gravity

neral relativity Massive gravity

Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND)

Classical
Nonsymmetric gravitation

Scalartensor theories

BransDicke

Scalartensorvector

Conformal gravity

Scalar theories

Nordstrm
 Whitehead

Geometrodynamics

Induced gravity

Tensorvectorscalar

Chameleon

Pressuron

Euclidean quantum gravity

Canonical quantum gravity

WheelerDeWitt equation

Loop quantum gravity

Spin foam
Quantisation

Causal dynamical triangulation

Causal sets

DGP model

Rainbow gravity theory

KaluzaKlein theory

Dilaton
Unification

Supergravity

Noncommutative geometry

Semiclassical gravity

Superfluid vacuum theory

Logarithmic BEC vacuum

Unification and String theory

quantisation M-theory

F-theory

Heterotic string theory

Type I string theory

Type 0 string theory

Bosonic string theory

 Type II string theory

Little string theory

Twistor theory

Twistor string theory

Scale relativity

Generalisations Liouville gravity

/ Lovelock theory

Extensions of (2+1)-dimensional topological gravity

GR GaussBonnet gravity
JackiwTeitelboim gravity

Aristotelian physics

CGHS model

RST model

Mechanical explanations
and toy models
FatioLe Sage

Entropic gravity

Gravitational interaction of antimatter

Categories:
Theories of gravitation
History of physics
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