i think it'd be cool to be able to make the strength of gravity be able to be modeled differently.
you should be able to have the strength of gravity decline proportionally to the square of distance (normal)
you should also be able to have the strength of gravity decline proportionally to distance
and the strength of gravity remain constant regardless of distance
and the strength of gravity decline proportionally to the cube of distance
and the strength of gravity decline proportionally to distance^4 (and etc)
this would show how gravity acts in different numbers of spatial dimensions and it would be cool to see how systems might change and/or fall apart.
more unintelligible babble below:
currently, we perceive the strength of gravity in 3 dimensional space as inversely proportional to distance squared.
However, in a two-dimensional world, the strength of gravity would be inversely proportional to the distance and in a
one-dimensional world, the strength of gravity would stay constant no matter how far you moved from an object. On
the other hand, in 4 dimensions, the strength of gravity is inversely proportional to the cube of distance. (and so on in
higher dimensions).
to paraphrase parts of brian greene's "the fabric of the cosmos"
an object can be imagined as radiating a field of gravity around it, straight lines extending from it to infinity. In three
dimensional space, something that gets closer to this object touches more of the lines and is influenced by the field of
gravity more, while an object more distant is touched by less lines and is influenced less by the field of gravity. just like a
sphere twice as large as another sphere has 4 times more area (2^2), something twice as far from an object as
another will have 4 times less gravitational pull from the object.
In two dimensions gravity's field looks like straight lines extending from the object to infinity.
However, this time, when an object gets twice as far away, it touches half as many lines instead of a quarter as many. a circle twice as large will
also have a circumference twice as large and gravity declines proportionally with distance.
In one dimension, gravity can only travel in the two directions on the line. it doesn't spread out like it can in two or three
dimensions. because of this, the strength of gravity remains the same no matter how far you get from an object.
Topic: adjustable gravity (Read 2921 times)
