Question

what if the sun were to suddenly disappear?, would the planets immediately change orbits or would there be some delay before the change in gravity affected them one by one?.

Answer 1

hmmm, if the sun were to suddenly disappear, there is no telling what would happen since the laws of nature would evidently be up for grabs and anything postulated could happen.

Answer 2

would the gravity well that the sun nests in still be there?

Answer 3

if i were to suspend disbelief and assume something; I would consider that the curvature of space would be disturbed and an immediate change would result; similar to jumping off the bed and spilling the glass of pepsi you had sitting next to you

Answer 4

If the Sun disappeared suddenly (don't ask how), people on Earth would not know of it for about eight minutes and nineteen seconds.

The affects of gravity travel at the speed of light so after 3.22 minutes Mercury would cease following an orbital path and continue on in a straight line into deep space. Also at that time the last rays of sunlight will have reached that planet and it would go dark.
The same thing would happen to Venus after 6.01 minutes and Earth after 8.32 minutes. One after another, the planets of our solar system would receive their last rays from the Sun and sail away at whatever pace they were previously moving. The same thing would happen to all other parts of our solar system, including asteroids, comets and debris in the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud.

Answer 5

im sure stephen hawking has a pretty good idea ,,,,

Answer 6

I have read this in some book! But I couldnt figure Which book it is!

Answer 7

alice in wonderland, im sure of it ;)

Answer 8

LoL :D

Answer 9

hi can someone answer my question? in my post?

Answer 10

thank you, now what if I swung a light year long rope or cable or a even a stick in a circular motion, and then release it? what happens? is it even possible?

Answer 11

http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gravity/overview.php

according to this, Newton was of the instantaneous notion; and Einstein of the speed oflight notion

Answer 12

Its an unconvincing question bro!

Answer 13

I believe that only by starting spining or swinging whatever object it is, this object would bend or flex so that nothing surpasses the speed of light

Answer 14

could anyone help me too?

Answer 15

If we apply Newtons Law in this question it will be like Gravitational effects woud be immediate.

Newton's Law of Gravition states that all objects are constantly being acted upon by all other objects.

This is known as the Universal Graviation Constant or G

Furthermore he states we can determine this gravitation force by the square distance between two masses.

F = (m1 * m2) / r ²

where m1 and m2 are the masses of two objects and r is the radial distance between them.

Light and Sound are both waves and must propagate so there is a time delay.
However for force such as graviational or electromagnetic we have a consistent environment in which force acts upon objects. We call this a field.

You may have heard of a magnetic field. If we had two magnets and instantly removed one of them the other would instantly be effected because the forces would push or pull it into a different direction.

I hope that explanation makes sense...

Answer 16

@MonicaMorris : Sorry I dont know about Volcanoes!

Answer 17

But then one must follow that very principle which states that no information may travel faster that light, meaning you cannot feel or experience what you haven't seen. It has to be this way in order to avoid paradoxical situations, like that of observing the effect before the cause.

Answer 18

Forgetting relativity, considering that all planets revolve around the sun, and that there is no gravitational interaction between the planets, we can simply assume that the planets will take a tangential trajectory to their orbit at the time the sun disappears.

Answer 19

But none of them can be forgotten, I want to know the actual event.

Answer 20

the information travels at the speed of light and hence takes time to reach the planets

Answer 21

For any particular planet which has been shown in the above diagram.
If the sun suddenly disappear then Fg=0,i.e the planet will not move in elliptical orbit because outward force will not be balance by centripetal force because sun is not present hence it will travel in a plane(along the tangent to the orbit )...
but there is many planet hence there may be as that a particular planet comes in a field of other planet and it will revolve around us..