¶ Gravity (1)
Index Entry
We now have another impressive kind of second-power relationship, the word ‘second-power’ having something to do with radials and surfaces. Regarding gravity, Newton discovered a certain relationship of masses, but unfortunately his relationship is stated in a negative way. He talks about an inverse ratio. The word inverse ratio makes it very difficult conceptually. He talks about not what it is, attraction, i.e. coming towardness, but about something else, i.e., repulsion, or raison d’etre of going awayness-- the opposite of what he is attempting to explain.
It could have been stated that the gravitational relationship is in terms of the second power of the relative distance between the given masses as stated in the terms of the radius of one of the masses. That is the way we would say it today. He could have said, quite simply, ‘Every time the distance between the bodies is halved, the attraction is fourfolded.’
We find that the gravitational law is in terms of the second power of radius, which terms are convertible into Einstein’s" mass conversion into radiation in terms of the second power of the radius.
