WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk Introducing: The Rest Is Science
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Dec 1, 2025 Dive into the quirky world of reality as two brilliant minds, Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens, tackle gravity and its surprising effects. Discover how gravity isn't just a one-way street, pulling everything together, but a mutual attraction that influences our daily lives. They debate astrology's relevance versus local gravity, and unravel Einstein's mind-bending theories of curved spacetime. Learn why time ticks differently based on gravity's pull, leaving you questioning everything you thought you knew about the universe.
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Gravity Is Mutual Attraction
- Gravity means objects with mass attract each other, not just the Earth pulling us down.
- Even small objects like two baseballs in space will slowly fall together over days due to mutual attraction.
Baseballs And Pens Still Pull Each Other
- Michael Stevens calculated two baseballs a meter apart would touch after about three days from mutual gravity.
- He also notes everyday objects, like people and a pen, exert tiny gravitational pulls on each other even if negligible.
From Force To Curved Space-Time
- Newton framed gravity as a force causing acceleration, but his model implied instantaneous action at a distance.
- Einstein reinterpreted gravity as curved space-time, predicting finite propagation and explaining Mercury's orbital precession.