Gravity is not a force, but the cost to move information around?
Posted by Martin in Science
The Dutch theoretical physicist Erik Verlinde will soon publish an article about his new interpretation of gravity. He conjectures that the gravitational force that we experience is the consequence of the amount of energy it costs to move information around: gravity is an entropic force.
In the science section of the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant of December 12, Erik Verlinde explains his views as follows:
Gravity exists because of a difference in concentration of information in the empty space between two masses and its surroundings. Gravity is not fundamental, but is an emergent phenomenon that arises from a deeper microscopical reality. On the smallest level Newtons laws don’t apply, but they do for apples and planets. You can compare this to pressure of gas. Molecules themselves don’t have any pressure, but a barrel of gas has.
Because I’m originally trained as a physicist, I do clearly see the beauty of Verlinde’s idea! Could his vision be the basis for THE quantized formulation of gravity purely based on energy and information arguments? That would be great and then Verlinde definitely has hit the jackpot. It is not too difficult to derive the classic Newtonian laws from Verlinde’s insights. The formulae needed originate from black hole thermodynamics and general relativity. Simplicity is the hallmark of a promising theory. With Wikipedia and my physics skills from the past, even I was able to derive the classical Newton laws the Verlinde way.
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