I'm sitting in the dining room reading an article in Scientific American Magazine on gravity.
"You know Newton's three laws of gravity can apply to every day life," I tell Ben. We are as fascinated with gravity as physicists. I hear him sigh at my baiting.
"An object at rest remains at rest unless acted upon by a force," he says, reciting the short version, not interested in math so early in the day- or ever.
"Things stay the same until something changes," I paraphrase.
" Ah I get it. An object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by a force. Things go on until something stops it, " he chimes in.
"For every action there is an equal reaction. What goes around, comes around, like karma," I conclude, but there's more to it than that.
"That's fine for Newtonian physics but gravity doesn't work in Quantum Mechanics." Ben huffs.
" That's why they came up with super string theory that proposes everything is made up of strings of energy. How the string vibrates determines the element and explains gravity." Something I guessed at long before I heard of the theory.
"Yeah, but they had to throw in eleven dimensions for it to work," he rustles, still unconvinced.
"So? You think the five dimensions is all we got? Frankly I don't think there are enough," now it's my turn to huff.
"Five?" Ben is puzzled as he calculates.
"Three dimensions of the physical world, time/space and consciousness--so far," I throw out. I turn a page in the magazine to a graphic depicting sub atomic particles doing something filthy with each other.
"Ok, consciousness encompasses the dimension of dreams, ESP and so on. I get that but where are the others?" He finally says.
" Conveniently, the theory says there are tiny ones curled up in bigger ones. What's a good theory without unobservable elements to get the math to add up." I add in a snarky tone. Ben considers this for some time while I continue reading.
"What if our dimension is a tiny one rolled up in a bigger one?" Ben suggests curiously and the idea gives me the weirdest feeling. Like a ball of string unraveling I find myself tangled in the implications.
"What if gravity is not so much a force but a string of energy and the galaxies are flying away faster as the influence of that string of gravity grows weaker." He wonders aloud.
There is a long pause as we ponder the bizarre concept. There is so much about gravity we don't understand.
The weak and strong atomic forces deal with subatomic particles so we don't relate to their influence but electro magnetism gives us the modern world and yet gravity, so easily overcome as I pick up my cup of tea, keeps us Earth bound and commands time/space itself.
"Well the universe is full of possibilities," I muse.
"Nah, there is no gravity the Earth sucks," Ben dismisses.
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