I am a 13 year old boy who is currently enrolled in high school in NSW, Australia.
On Friday (6th Oct 2015) in year 7 science class, our science teacher was berating one of the other students because he is a Christian and believes in Biblical creation.
She told him that “you shouldn’t believe everything your parents tell you” and that “everything in the bible has not been proven as a fact”.
She said “you should question everything, do your own research, and not just believe what people tell you “.
So I did, and I wrote out the following letter which I intend on reading to her in science class on Monday.
Dear Miss C******,
You told James on Friday that science says that you should question everything and not just believe what people tell you. So I thought about it and I have a couple of questions for you about gravity. I wrote them down so I wouldn’t forget them.
1. Is gravity a theory or a scientific fact?
2. Who discovered the graviton (the particle that carries the gravitational force) and in what year was it first observed?
3. Who discovered gravimetric waves (the wave that carries the gravitational force) and in what year was it first observed?
4. What medium do gravity waves use to tether unrelated bodies across the vast distances of space without leaving any sort of trace of its existence or any way to measure it’s effects?
5. How is it that gravity is strong enough to keep the Earth in orbit around the Sun, and the Moon in orbit around the Earth, and the Earth’s atmosphere from being sucked off into the infinite vacuum of space, yet a butterfly is strong enough to overcome it and fly around.
6. Does gravity counteract the centrifical force generated by the Earth spinning at over 1,000 miles per hour at the equator and stop us and our atmosphere from being flung off into outer space?
7. And so if this is true then why is it when you travel away from the equator and towards either the North or south pole, where there is less centrifical force generated, you or other objects don’t weigh more? For example 1kg of gold at the equator should weigh a lot more than 1kg at or near the North Pole.
8. If the moon’s gravity is strong enough to act upon the earth’s oceans and cause the tides then why doesn’t it act upon our atmosphere in the same way?
9. Is it true that Newton’s gravitational constant (big G) that scientists use today was derived from the Cavendish experiment in 1798 where Henry Cavendish hung two cannon balls from the roof of his shed and claimed that with them he could weigh not only the earth, but then Sun and Moon as well. And why haven’t modern day scientists been able to reproduce a working model of the Cavendish experiment.
10. Why do we need gravity when buoyancy, density, temperature, and electromagnetism is able to explain everything we observe and experience in the world around us?
11. If there is no proof of gravity and we have to have faith in its existence, doesn’t this mean that belief in gravity is not real zetetic science but rather pseudo-science or part of the RELIGION of SCIENTISM.