The The Galax "Gravity Hole"

[wa1ex]

The The Galax \"Gravity Hole\"

Although not actually in central Virginia, the Galax low-gravity cavern bears inclusion here for its uniqueness. In 1996, Virginia spelunkers Tim Doyle and Vaughan James were exploring unmapped areas of a cave near Galax, Virginia when they entered a chamber in which they suddenly felt light on their feet. They quickly discovered to their utter amazement that, in this chamber, they could effortlessly leave the ground merely by "pushing off," and rise high into the chamber before gently falling back to the floor. What Doyle and James had discovered was soon confirmed by government scientists to be a "gravity hole," a phenomena that had, up to that point, only been theorized by geophysicists. The gravity hole is essentially a region of reduced gravity which results from an unusually-dense mass immediately above the area, suspected in this case to involve a high concentration of the element iridium.

The Galax low-gravity cavern has since become a hotbed of controversy and dispute over ownership and intended use. A court battle currently rages between landowners wanting to create an amusement park which features the "Low-G" cavern as a centerpiece, and the federal government who has laid claim to the cavern with the intention of researching the gravity hole phenomenon further and potentially using it for astronaut training.

I tried to see if this thing is a hoax or if its real...anyone come across more information about this?

 

[Darby]

Re: The The Galax \"Gravity Hole\"

wa1ex,

I hadn't seen that article but I'd heard about the Galax "gravity hole".


Let's put it like this:

The entire mass of the Earth gives you a 1g acceleration at the surface (32ft/sec ^2). At the Earth's center, because the entire mass of the Earth is "above" you in all three dimensions your gravitational acceleration is zero.

So you have a nice little limit situation.

So I'll let you take a "wild" guess at what the answer is to the iridium deposit question:

Can the mass of a bit of near the surface subterranium iridium (or the same mass of any other element or compound) significantly counter the gravitational field of an entire planet?

Experiment:

Go into a coal mine and descend one mile under the surface. You'll have billions of tons of mass above your head. Stand on a shelf 30 ft. from the floor of the mine and dive head first toward the floor.

Hypothesis: You will float gently to the floor of the mine, bounce lightly off of the floor and float gently to the ceiling of the mine. You'll obey Hooke's Law, in fact, and become a harmonic oscillator losing momentum only to air resistence and to the floor and ceilng of the mine as you gently bounce up and down between the floor and ceiling.

This hypothesis is absolutely falsifiable so its a valid initial statement for the experiment. If you break your neck as you slam into the floor the hypothesis is falsified and you'll know that the Galax rumor is probably false.

 

[wa1ex]

Re: The The Galax \"Gravity Hole\"

Yeah ill try that experiment but 1st let me grow my mullet so we can include the air coefficient of friction...it will also make a cool digital picture to post on a blog....i'll sign a waiver

On a Serious Note:

SATELLITES REVEAL A MYSTERY OF LARGE CHANGE IN EARTH'S GRAVITY FIELD

The Discovery of this So called cave was 1996...and the Nasa Discovery 1997...could someone have found out ahead of time and try to profit from this?

From What i've Learned is that gravity is not the same over the surface of the earth, there are places where you feel slightly heavier than others...if you dont wanna diet go to the coast of India /ttiforum/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Now the Earth's Crust is about 25 Miles Thick...at that depth could such a fenomenon happen? and to make it more interesting just below the coast of India?

Interesting how we havent found all the mysteries of our planet and we decide to explore others...