Gravity, how does it work? (And I don't wanna talk to a scientist)

Gravity is a mystery because it seems to be a "spooky" force acting from a distance. However, it can be explained as an effect of local spacetime (while the curvature of spacetime is affected by distant mass).

It is also weird because it seems to cause action in objects that might be completely at rest. However, nothing is ever completely at rest; it may only appear so on a macroscopic scale.


I submit for your consideration:

1. All matter is made up of energy.
2. Energy travels at the speed of light. Atoms consist of a nucleus with electrons continuously moving around it (oscillating) at the speed of light. The nucleus is made of energy that is also oscillating. No energy is at rest. Note: Since all motion is relative, does that mean that no energy is ever at rest relative to any other energy? That must mean something interesting...
3. Mass curves spacetime. Light that crosses this spacetime appears to follow a curve, but essentially it is spacetime itself that is curved, and the light is following a "geodesic": a path that is "straight" along this curved space.

Now imagine a quantum of matter as some energy oscillating up and down (limit it to 1 dimension for simplification). In the lack of a gravitational field, spacetime is "flat" and the oscillating energy remains relatively stationary horizontally. If you now consider the presence of mass, say off to the right, then spacetime is curved. The oscillating energy no longer moves straight up and down, but bends slightly to the right on each oscillation.

If you imagine watching this energy acting like a perpetually bouncing ball in a ventilation duct that widens toward the right, its oscillations will acquire a right-ward lean, and it begins bouncing to the right. It has rightward momentum, and meanwhile it is also curving more on each oscillation, and it accelerates. Stop its horizontal motion, and it will again begin to take on rightward momentum.

Rather than a force adding energy to a mass, gravity maintains the inertia of mass energy.

The more you know.


Note: The duct analogy is flawed because in it, the ball bends to the right on the bounces, while the "moving energy" it represents bends to the right while it is crossing space.