starship-design: What is gravity?

[jimaclem@juno.com]

Kyle wrote,

<What is gravity.  I know, the knee-jerk response is, its produced by
mass>
<But what IS it?>

Well, for my two cents worth, I don't know what it IS, but I think I know
how to model it.
I space-time is treated as if it were a compressible fluid, then the
effects (at least some of them) of gravity are recreated, i.e., in the
presence of a mass, space-time compresses, and a ray of light entering
this region is bent, as Einstein predicted.  Now, I'm NOT saying that
space-time IS a compressible fluid, just that it seems to act like one.  

I'm still working on the real numbers for this hypothesis, and hope to
have them posted here soon.

P.S.  I'll go out on a limb here.  If this hypothesis is correct, we may
be able to devise a way to manipulate space-time, maybe like the
Alcubierre concept.

Any thoughts?  Let me know.

Jim Clem
jimaclem@juno.com