Experiments

Bernard Paul Badham's

Quark Physics Website

Quantum Field Theory of Gravity

Gravity Experiments

Measuring Gravitational Mass Attraction

It was decided before we could carry out any experiments to try an induce an increased or reduced gravitational attraction between masses that we needed

a means of detecting small changes in gravity.

In order to do this we decided to 'eliminate' the affect's of the Earth's gravity by having a system that worked at right angles to the Earth's gravitational field.

The obvious choice off a system was that used by Cavendish to measure Newton's gravitational constant big 'G' - a torsion balance.

In this system two small lead masses are fixed to a horizontal beam which is suspended from the ceiling using thin wire or nylon fishing line.

When suspended it was clear that the beam took a very long time to reach any equilibrium point - the main cause were air movements in the laboratory.

To elliminate the air draughts we erected a transparent perspex box between two fixed laboratory benches:

Although air currents were removed from the system the beam still took far too long to reach any settled position and so we added dampening to reduce the

magnitude of the beam's oscillations - at first we tried a large water bucket with vanes on the centre of the beam emmersed in the water, although this helped

we found that viscous engine oil worked better:

The container of oil was raised to the right position and two mirrors were fixed either side of the beam at the centre.

The mirror allows light from a laser to magnify movements of the beam - thus increasing its sensitivity.

This shows the final setup. The laser beam is refelcted three times before hitting a moveable light sensor attached to a measurement rail.

(The sensitivity of the system can be increased at any time by raising secondary mirrors into the path of the beam - by sending the beam up and down the lab a few times.)

The light sensor was adjusted to detect the overnight equilibrium position of the beam.

The light sensor was connected to a laptop in order to record the time period (T) of any oscillations of the beam.

The bonus with this system was that in each half cycle the beam passed the light sensor so that any minor displacement of the torsional beam was detected as unequal peaks on the time period graph.

The raw data from the recording could be analysed for more exact timings of the half time and whole time period oscillations.

Experiments were run first thing in the morning after an over night settling of the torsional beam.

Before running any experiement the laser sensor was set to the equilibrium point and the whole of the lab was kept vacated of 'moving bodies'

This included staff, and anything else that had the potential to move and upset the beam's equilibrium either by vibrations through the floor and walls or simply by their mass presence and distance.

Over a period of days we noticed that the torsion beam had a varying equilibrium position, we finally realised that this variation must be due to the

rotation of the Earth and that it must be acting in some way like a Focault pendulum.

In order to over come this and to improve the constancy of our equilibrium point for the torsion beam

we placed two magnadur magnets either side of the beam just below the central mirrors.

This gave the beam a more constant equilibrium position between the tension in the suspension wire and the magnetic attraction of the Eath's magnetic field.

The torsion beam was now acting like a giant compass in the picture below the beam was pointing due north before the concrete masses were placed inside the box.

Gravitational Displacement Using Concrete and Lead Blocks

With concrete blocks of total mass 41.5kg the lead mass on the torsion beam was pulled towards the concrete blocks.

This gave a 21.0 cm displacement of the laser beam.

When we used 6.9 kg of lead instead of the concrete the discplacment recorded was 3.5cm.

These simple results showed that the displacement of the torsion beam was proportial to the mass of substance deflecting the beam.

Displacement using iron shot puts

Displacement of the laser using aluminium blocks.

The peaks on the graph show the laser beam oscillating over the sensor.

The flat line trace to the right of the peaks shows that the laser beam was displaced from the sensor.

Update News

17 August 2009

Induced Gravity Experiments

Initial experiments on the system to try and change the gravitational effect between the masses on the floor and the masses on the beam proved promising.

This shows the aluminium encased lead floor masses and earth connections between the dome base plate and the lead masses on the torsion beam

- connection between the floor lead masses and the torsion beam lead masses was made via the suspension wire.

The beam was first allowed to reach its equilibrium point (Photo1)

Images showing the displacement of the laser beam, displacements of the laser beam in the first experiments were much greater than expected, making the tertiary mirror positioned at the equilibrium point (no floor masses) near 2 to amplify beam movements, not necessary!

On the first experiment when we turned on our 'Gravity Inductor' (for want of a better name) and the beam was immediately repelled! (Photo 2)

Then after reaching a large displaced equilibrium point another force, this time an attractive force kicked in and started to pull the beam back towards the floor masses.

The beam finally reached an attractive displaced position and remained there for as long as the 'Gravity Inductor' was turned on (Photo 3)

Marking the equilibrium positions of the laser on the far wall (repulsive and attravtive) I then turned the power to the 'Gravity Inductor' off.

To my surprise the beam was displaced even closer to the 'energised' lead massess and ended up hitting the displacement limters. (Beam at Photo 4)

This displaced attractive position for the beam remained for a few hours and had finally come back to rest in its equilibrium position (Photo 1) the morning of the next day.

Interpretation of Results

Even before this experiment was run my 'Qantum Gravitational Field Theory' had predicted that any induced effects on the gravitational field strength of a mass would take time to build up and time to die down. But why repuslion, then attraction, then more attraction?

The initial repulsion: this was due to electrostatic effects - charge building up in the system on the beam and the floor masses.

Slow build up of Initial attraction: an attractive force (possibly the gravitational effect we are looking for) slowly overcame the repuslive electrostatic effects pulling the beam to a new equilibrium point. The slow build up of the attractive force is predicted by the theory.

Stronger attractive force when the inductor was turned off: with the power off any electrostatic build up in the system slowly discharged away leaving the attractive force to displace the beam even more.

Residual attractive force which took hours to die away: predicted by the theory that it will take time to build up an induced gravitational effect in the lead masses.

These early results are promising but much work is to be done in order to confirm that the induced attractive force is in fact gravitational:

Acid Tests for Gravity

Acid Test 1: Gravity (an attractive force) cannot be shielded unlike electrostatic and magentic forces (which can both be attractive or repuslive).

Acid Test 2: Gravitational acceleration of a mass is independent of the mass - all masses fall at the same rate (induced g).

Acid Test 3: An attractive gravitational force is proportional to the mass only and independent of the substance: F = ma

Improvements on Design

The apparatus has been earthed and tested to remove any electrostaic build up - repulsive displacement by charging of the system has been eliminated.

Magnetic effects have so far not been detected by Hall Probes or small compasses. Non-magnetic materials have been used.

Magnetic shields have been constructed to be placed when needed between the beam masses and the floor masses.

Further Experiments Caried Out

We have detected attractive displacment of the beam using 3 different substances: concrete, lead and aluminium - Gravity Inductor off

We have detected greater attractive displacement with the Gravity Inductor on with two different substances: lead and aluminium.

If you would like to comment on these experiments then please use the guest book or discussion web pages or email me at: email

Planned Experiments

1. To measure the acceleration of the beam using different masses and substances; metals and nonmetals (Acid Test 2 &3)

2. To try and shield the effects (Acid Test 1)

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