Carson: Gravity, where does it come from?

[emailking]

It's probably worth pointing out that Carson obviously wasn't literally asking where gravity comes from based on context, and also that while there are theories, science has not yet discovered where gravity comes from.

It hasn't been unified with quantum mechanics, but we do know where it comes from. It arises from objects following the shortest path through curved spacetime, which is distorted by the presence of matter, energy, and pressure. All of this has been rigorously described mathematically. Now if you want to follow up with a bunch of why's about all of that ok, but that's where it comes from.

[emailking]

It hasn't been unified with quantum mechanics, but we do know where it comes from.

That's a rather big caveat. Either there has to be something gravity "comes from" consistent with quantum mechanics (and which has not yet been discovered), or our current understanding of quantum mechanics and/or general relativity must be incorrect. The latter is very unlikely, so it's fair to say that it isn't known "where gravity comes from."

But at most that will result in tweaks to the theory, which do not obviate its accuracy or its explanation at non-microscopic scales. We may get a grander understanding of gravity, but it's not going to blow out of the water the basic explanation for why the apple falls from the tree. Before Einstein, that really was a mystery.

[emailking]

Yes, we know far more about the properties of gravity than what generates it. Ditto for electricity I think. I remember pushing my science teacher in High School about this very issue. The teacher was made quite uncomfortable. It's all about the difference between science and technology, with the latter more focused on how it works, than why it works.

That's true. I graduated electrical engineering and we don't know where electricity comes from and we know where gravity comes from even less.

However, we know that electricity and gravity both exist. We're not entirely sure how they work, but we are pretty sure that in most cases we can approximate their work using mathematical formulae.

Bottom line, Carson is right. And nobody who knows anything about gravity or electricity can claim otherwise.

Electricity is just an overall net movement of electrons. In everyday experience, it arises from electric fields being present in metal wires. I don't know why you guys think we don't know where it comes from.

Also, we do know what generates gravity, and why it exists. That was my whole point.

Using the logic you guys are espousing, we don't know where rain comes from since we don't understand every little detail of cloud formation.