THE GEOMETRY OF SPACETIME

[spacecadet11]

When you look at a magnetic field/iron filings experiment at a high school science fair..one thing that I have noticed is that the magnetic field 'draws' a crazy geometric shape in space..is there a name for this shape? Some kind of "hedron" I might expect.
Can someone tell me what shape a gravitational field makes in space? I am pretty sure that it is different..does anyone no why? ...Better yet is there a way of controlling the shape of a magnetic field? How about a gravitational field?
Is it possible to calculate the grav/field of a proton? Is it different in shape from the grav/field of the entire Earth for example?
Example: If you separate three protons far enough and then bring two towards the one proton on the right trajectory..could you alter the gravitational influence/or shape of the interaction between the particles?
Thank you for any and all answers.
Bye
SC
PS. If I am intested in the future of SuperComputers..and wondering when they will be cheap enough to have on the desktop ..can someone suggest a good website to go to to find what the industry is doing in that regard..and maybe those on the leading edge of the technology.

 

[centsworth_II]

The shape traced by magnetic lines of force will vary depending on the shape of the source and outside influences. The shape will mostly be a combination of cone section curves: circle, ellipse, parabola, hyperbola. It would be hard to make a hedron-shape which would involve straight sides.

The shape of a magnetic field is controlled by concentrations of electro-magnetic force. The shape of a gravitational field is controlled by concentrations of mass. A small, hand-held black hole would be a great device for altering gravitational fields.

Protons influence each other through the electro-magnetic and nuclear forces. Gravity is so weak that it would pretty much have no influence in proton interactions.

 

[neuvik]

When you look at a magnetic field/iron filings experiment at a high school science fair..one thing that I have noticed is that the magnetic field 'draws' a crazy geometric shape in space..is there a name for this shape? Some kind of "hedron" I might expect. Can someone tell me what shape a gravitational field makes in space? I am pretty sure that it is different..does anyone no why?

Any -hedron is composed of flat planes and strait lines connecting points. I’ve never seen a magnet produce what you describe. I’d say they compose more of a parabolic line connecting each pole. Do you have a picture of what you saw?

Was it like this?

...Better yet is there a way of controlling the shape of a magnetic field?

Somewhat, the question is not specific. We don’t change the lines between the poles, but how they are arranged. That is achieved by physical positioning of the poles.

Only useful in mag lev trains, or maybe some medical equipment. Anything useful comes from the modulation of the field strength; electric motors and such.

How about a gravitational field?

No.

Is it possible to calculate the grav/field of a proton? Is it different in shape from the grav/field of the entire Earth for example?
Example: If you separate three protons far enough and then bring two towards the one proton on the right trajectory..could you alter the gravitational influence/or shape of the interaction between the particles?

The gravitational force of a proton is pretty much negligible, and certainly nothing compared to any nuclear forces.

PS. If I am intested in the future of SuperComputers..and wondering when they will be cheap enough to have on the desktop ..can someone suggest a good website to go to to find what the industry is doing in that regard..and maybe those on the leading edge of the technology.

What are you going to do with a supercomputer? Most desk top computers have more processing power than the owners know what to do with them on a scientific level. If you need help finding a good computer just go to Best Buy, or Frys Electronics , and tell them what programs you need to run.

After they give you a blank stare when you mention you need to run Matlab, Maple, Solidworks, Hydroflow, Visio, Interactive Thermodynamics +EES, and Labview …read the system requirements part on the box they came in.

 

[Fallingstar1971]

3 words.......

Bay

Wolf

Cluster


Supercomputers ARE nice, but not when put against ALL the computers at once.....

Seriously, if you want that kind of power, you can cluster a bunch of crappy computers together and combine their processing power!

To get to supercomputer levels however, you need to cluster MANY computers together (SETI@home, for example)

Star

PS are you possibly trying to equate gravity with magnetism? If so, the current understanding is that they are two separate phenomena. Gravity is caused by mass, magnetism is an aspect of the electro-magnetic force. I may not know a lot about gravity, but I DO know sackloads about electricity.

Somehow, in some way, it all ties together.....It all had to start somewhere, and it will end somewhere, "we" are caught in the middle of an ongoing event. The evolution of the Universe. We were not there to see it born, and chances are we wont see it end. We are, however, in a perfect position to watch it change, from one state, to another.

Star (again)

 

[MeteorWayne]

3 words.......

Bay

Wolf

Cluster

LOL

It's Beowulf

 

[skeptic]

To amplify what centsworth_II said.

"The shape traced by magnetic lines of force will vary depending on the shape of the source and outside influences. The shape will mostly be a combination of cone section curves: circle, ellipse, parabola, hyperbola. It would be hard to make a hedron-shape which would involve straight sides.

The shape of a magnetic field is controlled by concentrations of electro-magnetic force."

What you're seeing in the pictures is the magnetic field distorted by the shape of the magnet. If the magnet were so small its shape were not important, the field would be the shape of a torus - a doughnut with the size of the hole reduced to zero.

In addition the magnetic field can be altered by other materials. A material with high permeability will attract the magnetic field and distort it.

 

[GraemeH]

When you look at a magnetic field/iron filings experiment at a high school science fair..one thing that I have noticed is that the magnetic field 'draws' a crazy geometric shape in space..is there a name for this shape? Some kind of "hedron" I might expect.
Can someone tell me what shape a gravitational field makes in space? I am pretty sure that it is different..does anyone no why? ...Better yet is there a way of controlling the shape of a magnetic field? How about a gravitational field?
Is it possible to calculate the grav/field of a proton? Is it different in shape from the grav/field of the entire Earth for example?
Example: If you separate three protons far enough and then bring two towards the one proton on the right trajectory..could you alter the gravitational influence/or shape of the interaction between the particles?
Thank you for any and all answers.
Bye
SC
PS. If I am intested in the future of SuperComputers..and wondering when they will be cheap enough to have on the desktop ..can someone suggest a good website to go to to find what the industry is doing in that regard..and maybe those on the leading edge of the technology.

Just to supplement the answers already given;

The shape of a 3D gravitational field is best visualized by imagining a 3D lattice (space time) in which all lattice points are distorted towards a mass at a given point within the lattice. The closer a lattice point is to the mass, the greater the distortion. [Wish I could find a link to a suitable image ]

Yes, the shape is different because gravity and magnetism are different forces.

Yes, you could calculate the gravitation field for a proton. The space time distortion would be the same overall shape as the Earth model above, but many many magnitudes smaller due the difference in mass.

The gravitational field will remain with the same overall geometry (distortion of space time towards an isolated mass) as you keep increasing the mass. However, with more than one mass, there will be a more complex space time distortion between the two masses, indicating gravitational interaction.

Under "everday" conditions, proton-proton interactions are dominated by coulombic repulsion (like charges repel). However, if the protons are accelerated to relativistic speeds (approaching the speed of light) in, say, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, then the coulombic repulsion can be overcome. The resulting particle shower and detection of decay products can give insights into fundamental physics.

Note that current thinking is that at sufficiently high energies, the electromagnetic, weak and strong forces will be unified and therefore indistinguishabe. However, much higher engeries would be required before gravitational effects would start to dominate (The LHC operational energy is 10^4 GeV, whereas GU energy is expected to be 10^15 GeV).

LOL on "super computers". From my perspective, the Pentium III laptop I have is a super computer compared to the Sinclair ZX81 that I used to have in the early 80's Keep the page below bookmarked as it will give you reasonably up to date information concerning developments in this field (see section, Future Developments);

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flops