Gravity isn’t a force, strictly speaking. Objects move along geodesics in spacetime (that’s basically a straight line along a curved surface), and gravity bends spacetime, and therefore also these geodesics, around massive objects. So you don’t actually get accelerated by gravity, that’s why you don’t feel anything during free fall. What we perceive as the force of gravity pushing us down, is the solid ground accelerating us upwards, when following the geodesic would have us fall instead.
So when the sun disappears, the geodesic that used to spiral around the sun suddenly straightens out, and the neutral movement, the new free fall, has the earth continuing in a straight line. You wouldn’t be able to feel that. What the other person said about tidal forces is true tho, it would likely cause worldwide tsunamis
I wonder if we would feel the sudden disappearance of the centripetal force of the sun’s gravity.
After 8 minutes
http://scienceprimer.com/lunar-and-solar-tides
Yes, the tidal effect of the sun would disappear, and that would probably make the oceans all fucky suddenly (after an 8 minutes lag).
Does gravity travel at the speed of light?
Of course. It can’t travel faster
Yes. General relativity.
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What about quantum entanglement? Is that also limited to the speed of light?
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The gravity does not travel, the gravity is.
Changes in the gravitational field definitely travel, and do so at the speed of light.
Look up LIGO
If it didn’t travel, it wouldn’t take 8 minutes to stop right?
If the mass vanishes, then the gravity would also vanish, at the same time.
False. If the mass vanished via magic, the effect would ripple out at the speed of light. Source, gravity waves which move at the speed of light.
But vanishing is magic, it goes against the laws of physics, so you could apply any fictional logic
After 8 minutes, almost certainly
Gravity isn’t a force, strictly speaking. Objects move along geodesics in spacetime (that’s basically a straight line along a curved surface), and gravity bends spacetime, and therefore also these geodesics, around massive objects. So you don’t actually get accelerated by gravity, that’s why you don’t feel anything during free fall. What we perceive as the force of gravity pushing us down, is the solid ground accelerating us upwards, when following the geodesic would have us fall instead.
So when the sun disappears, the geodesic that used to spiral around the sun suddenly straightens out, and the neutral movement, the new free fall, has the earth continuing in a straight line. You wouldn’t be able to feel that. What the other person said about tidal forces is true tho, it would likely cause worldwide tsunamis