Posted by Toby Inkster on 06/01/06 07:38

Mark Parnell wrote:

> What is the height of gravity?

The amplitude of a gravitational wave?

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/GR/grav_radiation.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_radiation

But that's not really the point. The point is that anything that exists has a
certain set of properties. Some of these properties (such as height perhaps)
can be expressed numerically. It is almost inevitable that in some way that
number will be too high or too low for some pleasant result to occur -- as
per my previous example, too tall to fit in a particular gold box -- thus the
property cannot have a perfect value, so the thing that exists cannot be
perfect.

Taking gravity as an example, we can choose the strength of G, the gravitational
constant to be our numerical property. Clearly G is just a tiny bit stronger
than perfect for us earthlings as Earth is currently slowly edging towards the
sun and will probably (in a few billion years) spiral into it.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact

[Back to original message]