Gravitomagnetism

Gravity is the weakest of the natural forces and yet it dominates our lives. We know how to make use of its properties and how to overcome it. But we can’t control it. To do that we must be able to generate and control gravity’s hidden companion force field, called gravitomagnetism. For those people not wanting to bother with mathematics they can skip over the equations and just enjoy the unfolding scientific adventure story. It begins with the history of gravity research, from the discovery that gravity holds the Solar System together, through special relativity, then a brief look at quantum mechanics and on to an outline of Einstein’s general relativity. Analogues with gravity, particularly electromagnetism, are examined in the search for a breakthrough in understanding how to control gravity, followed by a review of Faraday’s gravity experiments. Finally, a number of ground-based experiments to detect gravitomagnetism are proposed. Hopefully Gravitomagnetism will stimulate a few scientists and engineers to carry out some of the experiments in the first step towards the ultimate goal of gravity control.