Hello Dr. Carroll, love your blog preposterousuniverse, you inspire and empower me. Thank you.
I am not a physicist (yet!), but I have an issue on my mind that you may be of some help with. I find the symmetries of the universe to be incredibly beautiful in a deeply profound sense. I was wondering if there is any known reason for the symmetry between Electrical Fields and Gravitational Fields? That is they both obey inverse square laws, is there any reason for this? I know that the gravitational field is much weaker and I know that electric fields don't have as much range due to largely cancelling each other out.
Is it perhaps because both act on space itself and the inverse square represents some sort of inertia inherent to space?
Thank you so much for your time and for entertaining my musings!
CrannNaBeatha1 karma
Hello Dr. Carroll, love your blog preposterousuniverse, you inspire and empower me. Thank you.
I am not a physicist (yet!), but I have an issue on my mind that you may be of some help with. I find the symmetries of the universe to be incredibly beautiful in a deeply profound sense. I was wondering if there is any known reason for the symmetry between Electrical Fields and Gravitational Fields? That is they both obey inverse square laws, is there any reason for this? I know that the gravitational field is much weaker and I know that electric fields don't have as much range due to largely cancelling each other out.
Is it perhaps because both act on space itself and the inverse square represents some sort of inertia inherent to space?
Thank you so much for your time and for entertaining my musings!
View HistoryShare Link