Testing the Boundary Conditions of General Relativity Near the Earth-Sun Saddle Point

Author: Tom Martin
Report-no: GRI-980605

We suggest that a satellite with a stable atomic clock on board be sent through the Earth-Sun gravitational saddle point to experimentally determine whether Nature prefers static solutions of the field equations of General Relativity, such as the standard Schwarzschild solution, or whether Nature prefers equivalent non-static solutions. This is a test of the boundary conditions of General Relativity rather than of the field equations. The fractional difference in clock rates between the two possibilities is a part in a hundred million. This is a large and easily measurable effect.

On the Motion of Free Material Test Particles in Arbitrary Spatial Flows

Author: Tom Martin
Report-no: GRI-980630

We show how the motion of free material test particles in arbitrary spatial flows is easily determined within the context of ordinary vector calculus. This may be useful for everyone, including engineers and other non-specialists, when thinking about gravitational problems. It already has valid application to simple problems such as the problems of motion in rotating and accelerating frames and to the gravitational problem of the single spherically symmetric attractor. When applied to the two body gravitational problem, it may help us determine the actual direction of the flow.

General Relativity and Spatial Flows: I. Absolute Relativistic Dynamics

Author: Tom Martin
Report-no: GRI-000607

Two complementary and equally important approaches to relativistic physics are explained. One is the standard approach, and the other is based on a study of the flows of an underlying physical substratum. Previous results concerning the substratum flow approach are reviewed, expanded, and more closely related to the formalism of General Relativity. An absolute relativistic dynamics is derived in which energy and momentum take on absolute significance with respect to the substratum. Possible new effects on satellites are described.

General Relativity and Spatial Flows: II. The Hollow Shell Cavendish Experiment

Author: Tom Martin
Report-no: GRI-010515

The internal gravitational fields of bodies which are predicted by General Relativity and the spatial flow theory of gravity are compared. In contrast to the case of the external fields, the internal fields in the two theories are completely different for ordinary states of matter. We discuss the details of these startling differences and suggest a simple, and yet pivotal, hollow shell Cavendish experiment which can easily discern between them. The parallels between General Relativity and the spatial flow theory are made for the case of extraordinary states of matter.

Modified Cavendish Balance for Testing Gravitational Interior Solution

Author: Richard Benish
Report-no: GRI-010629

In the hundreds of torsion balance experiments that have been performed for gravity research, the key data were obtained, typically, with the large and small masses in stationary positions and with the small masses staying outside the surfaces of the large masses. It remains to discover what happens when the balance arm has no restoring force to keep it in a stationary position and material has been removed from the large masses, so as to allow the small masses to move through them. This paper describes a new experiment whose purpose is to answer this question. We may thereby provide empirical support for a common problem in elementary physics: The ideal case involves a relatively isolated, uniformly dense spherical mass with a hole through a diameter. The problem is to find the pattern of motion that unfolds when a test mass is dropped into the hole. The well known theoretical answer is that the small mass undergoes simple harmonic motion. But nothing like this has ever been directly observed. With a suitably modified balance, I intend to demonstrate, as a first approximation, the correctness of the prediction that the small masses oscillate through the large masses.

Paper: PDF

Experimental Evidence Against Repulsion in Hollow Spherical Shells

Author: Tom Martin
Report-no: GRI-011011

We have performed a simple version of the hollow shell Cavendish experiment. We were unable to detect the characteristic repulsive force which is logically implied when one assumes the boundary condition of continuity of flow across material interfaces in spatial flow theories of gravity. We conclude that this boundary condition is not in agreement with physical reality (rather than taking the much stronger position that spatial flow theories are necessarily wrong).

Paper: PDF

Pedagogy: The Bubble Analogy and the Difference Between Gravitational Forces and Rocket Thrust in Spatial Flow Theories of Gravity

Author: Tom Martin
Report-no: GRI-020928
Revised: 040711

We present a physical analogy which can be used to understand the issues involved in the Principle of Equivalence in so-called spatial flow theories of gravity, and we discuss the essential kinematic properties of the flow which distinguish its gravitational, non-inertial, and inertial modes.  We also point out that the acceleration experienced by a body moving in the flow does not always coincide with the comoving derivative of the flow itself.

Paper: PDF

Comments On Cahill's Quantum Foam Inflow Theory of Gravity

Author: Tom Martin
Report-no: GRI-040715

We reveal an underlying flaw in Reginald T. Cahill's recently promoted quantum foam inflow theory of gravity. It appears to arise from a confusion of the idea of the Galilean invariance of the acceleration of an individual flow with what is obtained as an acceleration when a homogeneous flow is superposed with an inhomogeneous flow. We also point out that the General Relativistic covering theory he creates by substituting a generalized Painlevé-Gullstrand metric into Einstein's field equations leads to absurd results.

Paper: PDF