Now you can see that even though some of the objects may have headed deeper into the circle at first over an extended period of time they all will move on and leave the circle. This is the basic consequence of motion on any system of unrestrained objects. Motion tends to increase the space of the system and dissipate it. This is true of the air molecules in a car tire. It is true of the balls on a pool table. It is true of the suns and galaxies of the entire physical universe. Motion expands the distances between the objects. The physical universe does not necessarily have had to have undergone an explosion at some time to be expanding just the fact that it has motion in it is enough for it to be expanding. The fact that motion tends to expand the space or distances in a system of unrestrained objects affects every thing that happens in the physical universe and is the fundamental behind thermodynamics and occurs from the most minute to largest scales of the universe.
For any group of objects to interact as a system they need to be limited to a space close enough for them to interact. If the space is allowed to expand until the system dissipates there is no system. In a device such as a mechanical watch the objects ,parts of the watch, are locked together mechanically. On a pool table the balls are kept on the table by the bumpers. In a car tire the tire and wheel walls keep the air molecules contained.
The physical universe is itself a system of objects and purely under the influence of the motion of the objects that it contains would dissipate. On the large scale of the physical universe, the scale of asteroids, moons, planets, suns, galaxies and other things found drifting in space and the spaces between them, there is no solid barrier as in the examples above to restrict the expansion of the space of the system. That job apparently falls to gravity. Everywhere we look through the universe free objects in space are drawn to each other by gravity. Motion moves the objects apart, gravity draws them together. We can get from all of this a philosophical definition of gravity as that action of the physical universe that counteracts the expansion of space by the motion of the objects within it so that the objects can continue to interact as a system. That definition is philosophical as it implies a purpose for gravity and purpose implies thought and reason and is therefore not necessarily provable on a strictly mechanical basis. It gives a guide for thought about and understanding of gravity.
The simplest case for gravity is between two objects. Newton posited that gravity exist between each particle or object in the universe and every other. Many experiments and test have been run on this and no exceptions have been found. Two objects placed next to each other with no motion or other influences to keep them apart will accelerate toward each other and this occurs along the line of their centers. Because of this they are said to possess an attraction. We can be more specific than this.
The expansion of the distance between two objects because of their motions occurs also along the line of their centers regardless of whether their motions are along the same line or are skew to each other. It is not the motion of the objects itself that gravity is opposing it is the expansion of distance between their centers. Gravity is the contraction of the distance between two objects. Further more as the two objects accelerate toward each other, not just go at a steady pace, we posit that the distance contracted translates into direct inward motion along the line of their centers. To re-state this concisely gravity is the contraction of the distance between any two objects with the distance contracted being translated into direct inward motion along the line of the objects centers.
As an example a gravity contraction between two objects of 1 ft./minute would cause the objects to gain 1ft./minute of inward acceleration every minute. Thus gravity contracting distance between two objects creates the motion needed to re-expand the distance.
Distance also affects both gravity and motion. Gravity being a radiant effect that is acting from the centers of the objects it*s strength falls off proportionally to increase in distance between the objects. Also with greater distances it takes proportionally greater motion to have a significant effect on the positional relationship of the two objects. So we have three things that have an interaction - gravity, motion and distance. This interaction of gravity, motion and distance is gravitation. That is the definition of gravitation - the interaction of gravity, motion and distance. It comes from gravity which we have defined above and the suffix -ion which means the action or process or result of.
It is important to distinguish between gravity the thing and gravitation, it's effects or results. Gravitaics is the technology of gravitational control and by knowing what it is you can control it by altering any of it's parts: gravity, motion or distance
ANTIGRAVITY
It is perhaps not necessary to use the word "antigravity" in gravitaics but it is a popular word and it will get used anyway and science fiction word or not it is accurate so we may as well take it over and define it in terms of an actual phenomena that it can apply to.
Anti- means opposed to or counter to. Gravity is a contraction of the distance between any two objects that is counter (anti-) to the expansion of distance between any two objects caused by motion. By corollary the expansion of distance between objects caused by their motions is anti-gravity. Therefore antigravity can be defined as the expansion of the distance between objects caused by their motions. And we should add to that - where the expansion of distance between the objects and their gravity is of comparable magnitude.
The reason for that last is that while the principle of the motion caused expansion of distance is the same in space as in say the air that inflates your car tires the gravity between the air molecules in the car tire has no significant affect on keeping the tire inflated . In this case it would not be appropriate to refer to it as antigravity. Air pressure would be the proper term.
With this definition we can say that every rocket that put a satellite, a space vehicle or man into orbit was generating antigravity. The international space station stays in space because between it and the earth there is enough antigravity to keep it there. It could even be said that the child in a play ground swing set is generating antigravity to propel the swing. It is a different way of looking at these things because it puts a lot of what is going on into one word but it is none the less accurate.
While the just mentioned activities are not what have been referred to in science fiction as applications of antigravity you might expect that if you discovered the real principle that it would include a lot of things that had not been considered and this is the case. It is possible however to build a device that uses the principle of antigravity as it has been laid out here to produce the more traditional concept of a vehicle that can hover in place or fly away from the earth by it's gravitational reaction.
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