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Can Gravity Make Energy?

Yeah, great markup Jimmy... :bwall

Thanks, Rir. I love missing the obvious.

JT - well, you got me. I don't think it's much to debate however, because the Newtonian model works in so many cases. Backing into your example of the classical realm, an electric charge by itself has an associated electric field. In your lingo it might be 'electricity with no force.' It's not fair to then conclude that the electric force does not exist (electric -> electromagnetic -> electroweak). What you are saying and what Albert was saying aren't quite the same.

Interestingly, wikipedia calls them the Fundamental interactions, not forces. I should take that GR class this year... ;)
 
Ririon said:
For every quote on the net on gravity and acceleration, you will find about 12 on gravity and force. This according to the Almighty Google (which I trust more that your Britannica-quote when it comes to common word usage).
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Britannica's was referencing Einstein, not themselves.

Also: Given two theoretically equivalent ways of looking at things, I choose the one that makes the most sense. You could argue that there are four basic accelerations in the universe, and that the force between two magnets is the result of the acceleration they excert on each other. But i don't like it, since they are not necessarily moving, let alone accelerating. But the force is still there.
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They both make sense when one looks at space-time curvature. But this is getting way off track. If we put in acceleration for gravity (g) we see that it is not enough by itself to produce energy, which is much more involved.

Agreed? Truce?
 
what would happen anyway if you could get energy directly from gravity? it couldn't just be unlimited, so would you just end up actually reducing the gravitic constant on whatever item you're using the machine on? like eventually using it enough would cause the earth to come apart because it can no longer hold itself together? it doesn't really make any sense to expect to get any useful energy out of gravity besides what potential energy there is.
 
As I understand it, black holes give off Hawking radiation from the particle/antiparticle pairs that quantum mechanical processes create (I believe one of the particles gets plonked into the black hole, and the other one is what contributes to Hawking radiation).

Some sort of photoelectric effect could presumably be used to harness this. Of course that's not really gravitational energy, and if the best ideas you have for energy generation involve hanging around black holes, I suspect one would be tempted to run away and form an agrarian society.
 
I have a hypothetical answer to my own question. If matter could be transformed directly into energy then the process owuld work. Gravity being created by matter would not be reduced and energey would be created, but only technically. I suppose the only way you could tranfor matter to energy would be with fusion. I guess no solution is availbe because it can't be done. Thank you for the commentary.
 
With the immense resurgence in Wicca and woo generally, our energy requirements for the next century should be adequately met by burning witches.
 
Right, i've solved it - energy from gravity.

Build one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator

Then go and get some big asteroids to send down in it, as an added bonus, you could build a new continent in the middle of the pacific after a while.

Okay, it's all still realising potential energy, but I liked it.
 
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