Tools of the Trade: The Pendulum That Detects
Extra Dimensions | Physics & Math | DISCOVER Magazine
The detector is essentially a pendulum—a molybdenum ring hanging on an ultrathin tungsten fiber—that feels the gravitational tug of two rotating molybdenum disks below. The disks are positioned so that their gravitational tugs on the pendulum should almost exactly offset each other. Any unexpected twisting of the pendulum would indicate a violation of the known laws of gravity—a result that might suggest the gravitational pull of the two disks is being diluted into one or more extra dimensions. So far Adelberger’s group has shown that gravity behaves just as expected to distances of 44 millionths of a meter, meaning that any extra dimensions must be even smaller.
Perhaps gravity only appears weak, because it operates in additional spatial dimensions beyond length, width, and height. These extra dimensions would be imperceptible in our macro world but might have a detectable influence on gravity at scales of less than the width of a hair.
No comments:
Post a Comment