Letter to the Editor: Science has one goal
Blending mind-boggling science with thoughtful humanistic messages was a nice touch from the author of the letter titled ‘A Change of Pace’. It shows how much humans have progressed from living in caves to landing on the Moon and some of our planets. There is so much that we (as in humans and scientists) have learned about our universe, but then again, there is much we do not know or maybe never will. Yes, breathe it all in, enjoy life for a change, get rid of the hate, and have a wonderful life.
Science has one major goal and that is to factually figure out how and why things behave the way they do. This is accomplished thru observation and experimentation. And when established science is proven wrong, it is corrected. Ultimately, they seek the truth about the nature in which we live in.
So, I must address some inaccuracies in the author’s letter regarding gravity. First, all mass has gravity – from a microscopic piece of space dust to super-massive black holes, including all planets. Actually, gravity can be measured. To keep it simple, Earth’s gravity measures in at .98 Newtons (as in Sir Isaac) and Mars gravity is only .3711N.
Regarding the Moon, it is indeed drifting away from the Earth. We all know the Moon is responsible for our tides, but tides are also why the Moon is slowly moving away from us. It has to do with the leading edge of the gravity that tides induce and gives the Moon a slight bit of energy to move away from Earth. Don’t worry, it’s only about 3 centimeters/year and the negative effects of not having our tides will be billions of years in the future.
Scientists created the concept of dark matter because their gravity equations would fail when they are trying to describe the behavior of galaxies and other astrological phenomena. The only way their gravity equations could succeed was if there was more mass present.
Scientists don’t know yet what gravity is, how it works, or what it is made of. Even the concept of dark matter has yet to be proven. It may not even exist and maybe there is more to the equations of gravity that scientists have yet to discover.
If you got this far reading this letter – thanks. It’s above most people’s head, including mine, but you can get acquainted with our universe by watching the Science Channel on TV. Reading and research is a big help, too.
Mark Mihevc
Graeagle