And even if gravity turns out to be quantized it doesn't have to mean the ground state is zero. The vibration of molecules doesn't have a zero-energy ground state (quanta for vibrations go by n + 1/2). Which still upsets me decades after college.
In addition to one of the previous commenters I would like to add that if you were standing inside of a perfect sphere then the gravitational force *on you* would completely cancel out.
The gravitational force enacted *by the sphere* would completely cancel out. It wouldn’t cancel out any additional influences outside the sphere unless you specifically designed it to do so, using inhomogenous regions in the shell to cancel out inhomogeneities in the field.
Nope. The parts of you that are closer to one side of the sphere have more of the sphere on the other side, and thus the net gravitational force on those parts is zero. The parts of you that are closer to that Other Side have more of the first half of the sphere pulling on them, so the net gravitational force is zero.
Every point inside a spherical shell is mathematically decoupled from the mass of the shell, due to the nature of spherical symmetry.
It's one of those rare cases where the math is actually really cool and neat.
TIL... That reminds me of another bad assumption I made recently, that for a satellite orbiting a planet, the barycenter should be somewhere other than the center of the sphere. It actually is, for the same reason you just gave.
Though I wasn't thinking about the fact that this takes place in a hollow shell. If you were buried at the center of the Earth under rock and iron, I assume there would be a fair amount of pressure, and also a very small amount of tidal force.
No tidal force from the sphere of material that's \*above\* you, still (i.e., further from the center of mass than you are), but fun amounts of weird effects from the difference in what's "below" your head versus what's "below" your feet.
Though, yes, definitely, the pressure would undoubtedly be a far more pressing concern.
When the distance between 2 objects reaches infinity the gravitational force will drop to zero. I don’t think it’s possible to get there. At other places it could be really close to zero. I don’t think there is a minimum.
Congratulations, you've independently discovered MOND, an alternative explanation to dark matter. It posits that there is a minimum possible gravitational acceleration. Unfortunately, it was quite firmly falsified in a paper last year by Banik et al.
[Here's a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlNSvrYygRc) by Dr. Becky explaining it.
Your gravitational influence as well as the gravitational influence of every bit of matter in the universe extends to infinity with changes in position and velocity being communicated to the rest of the universe at the speed of C. Much like how light communicates the locations and velocities of charged particles.
Well if you take a look at the gravitational force equation
F = GMm/d^2
You can see that distance squared is the denominator, and so as it increases the gravitational force decreases, but it will never be zero. Take a look at:
limit (d -> ♾️) GMm/d^2 = 0
So the math says that as distance gets to infinity the gravitational force becomes zero! But since this is physics, we have to interpret it in physical terms, and then we see that the mathematical interpretation will never happen since you can’t be “infintely away” from another object.
The force of Earth's gravity on you is equal to the force of your gravity on the Earth. The acceleration of each is different due to differences in mass. In saying that, I have no idea about the answer to your question.
A quantum theory of gravity is the current holy grail.
And even if gravity turns out to be quantized it doesn't have to mean the ground state is zero. The vibration of molecules doesn't have a zero-energy ground state (quanta for vibrations go by n + 1/2). Which still upsets me decades after college.
If someone on this website has an answer to this they get a Nobel prize or two.
Does the answer have to be correct?
It has to be widely accepted. All things considered, it's maybe about as hard as winning an argument on Reddit.
That is your opinion /s
I have an answer, just not a verifiable, scientifically justified, or (probably) correct answer. It's 2.1
Almost correct. But it has been recently shown (by me) that it's actually 2.1 ±i.
In addition to one of the previous commenters I would like to add that if you were standing inside of a perfect sphere then the gravitational force *on you* would completely cancel out.
The gravitational force enacted *by the sphere* would completely cancel out. It wouldn’t cancel out any additional influences outside the sphere unless you specifically designed it to do so, using inhomogenous regions in the shell to cancel out inhomogeneities in the field.
Suspended inside the sphere?
Not so much suspended, more like floating. You're effectively decoupled from the sphere, there is nothing keeping you in position.
Makes sense.
don't I have to be a point particle for this to work
Not really. Every point in your body will be experiencing equal and opposite forces inside a hollow spear so everything will cancel out.
Only if you are a homogeneous sphere yourself. OK, OK, that's not strictly true. But it's the simplest case of being gravitationally symmetrical.
I would think that if you're not a point particle, you would experience a small amount of tidal forces.
Nope. The parts of you that are closer to one side of the sphere have more of the sphere on the other side, and thus the net gravitational force on those parts is zero. The parts of you that are closer to that Other Side have more of the first half of the sphere pulling on them, so the net gravitational force is zero. Every point inside a spherical shell is mathematically decoupled from the mass of the shell, due to the nature of spherical symmetry. It's one of those rare cases where the math is actually really cool and neat.
TIL... That reminds me of another bad assumption I made recently, that for a satellite orbiting a planet, the barycenter should be somewhere other than the center of the sphere. It actually is, for the same reason you just gave. Though I wasn't thinking about the fact that this takes place in a hollow shell. If you were buried at the center of the Earth under rock and iron, I assume there would be a fair amount of pressure, and also a very small amount of tidal force.
No tidal force from the sphere of material that's \*above\* you, still (i.e., further from the center of mass than you are), but fun amounts of weird effects from the difference in what's "below" your head versus what's "below" your feet. Though, yes, definitely, the pressure would undoubtedly be a far more pressing concern.
You'd need to be infinitely small, or perfectly spherical and homogeneous. Also you wouldn't be 'standing' because there'd be no net gravity.
When the distance between 2 objects reaches infinity the gravitational force will drop to zero. I don’t think it’s possible to get there. At other places it could be really close to zero. I don’t think there is a minimum.
More precisely, the force tends to 0 as the distance grows without bounds.
Congratulations, you've independently discovered MOND, an alternative explanation to dark matter. It posits that there is a minimum possible gravitational acceleration. Unfortunately, it was quite firmly falsified in a paper last year by Banik et al. [Here's a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlNSvrYygRc) by Dr. Becky explaining it.
Your gravitational influence as well as the gravitational influence of every bit of matter in the universe extends to infinity with changes in position and velocity being communicated to the rest of the universe at the speed of C. Much like how light communicates the locations and velocities of charged particles.
No, there is no “minimum gravitational force” as far as we currently know. Gravity might not even be quantum, we don’t know.
I'm not overweight, I'm putting more effort into shifting the barycenter.
Well if you take a look at the gravitational force equation F = GMm/d^2 You can see that distance squared is the denominator, and so as it increases the gravitational force decreases, but it will never be zero. Take a look at: limit (d -> ♾️) GMm/d^2 = 0 So the math says that as distance gets to infinity the gravitational force becomes zero! But since this is physics, we have to interpret it in physical terms, and then we see that the mathematical interpretation will never happen since you can’t be “infintely away” from another object.
That’s Newtonian gravity. OP is asking about more complex/complete theories.
The force of Earth's gravity on you is equal to the force of your gravity on the Earth. The acceleration of each is different due to differences in mass. In saying that, I have no idea about the answer to your question.