Visual Effects from an Anti Gravity Device

Is this Wesley Crusher????

Too bad you are posting anonymously otherwise I would have gladly gotten into this thread!

Oh well better luck next time.

Too theoretical for my tastes, we still know so little about gravity.

My guess would be no, regardless of all the movies which show a distortion field effect.

If we look at magnets (permanent and electromagnets) these don't bend light noticeably at field strength levels we can generate. Just an example as without knowing how the anti-gravity field is being generated it is difficult for me to speculate.

Interested to see if others here have a better take on the concept.

It depends; absolute gravity, or relative gravity ? .

It is the gravity of the situation.

It depends on if you have the older model AK15L or the newer model B1000 with distortion correction....

Let's take a device that generates a gravity field... hmmm ... oh yes - some mass!

Get yourself a jar full of coins. Hold it up - does it appreciably distort the light? I think not. Get some more mass... say, Mt Fuji. Stand back. Does it distort light? Nope. Let's add some more mass... hmm - the sun! Yes - light distorted (testable if you have some equipment that measures in micro-arc-seconds).

So I'd be guessing your theoretical gravity field generator would not cause visible lensing. I would also predict it would not be directional (any more than the gravity of any mass is directional). Gravity waves appear to propagate in all directions (like light). To make them directional you would need to discover a substance that would reflect gravity waves (like many substances reflect light waves) - nothing known does this for gravity, but where there is science there is hope.

Gravity is a misnomer. Actually, the Earth sucks.

That explains the haze under Luke's speeder.

Rumour has it that, following the success of their AnyWhen© time machine, KrisDel™ is working on a prototype anti-gravity device right now. The equipment is in place to manufacture it - look here.

Consider some sort of vehicle that has a small anti-gravity generator, like a motorcycle with the device replacing the motor. If it were canceling gravity for its mass, with or without a rider, then the light under the cycle would shimmer under the generator like a heat wave, due to the gravitational distortion.

Standing too close to one of these when it accelerated away might knock you over due to the antigravity force wave (like a gravity wave, only repulsing instead of attracting). If Newtons laws of motion still hold that for every action there must be a reaction, then an antigravity cycle would exert more force to accelerate away from some point. Consequently, there would be a tidal wash of force expressed in the opposite direction of acceleration. Any thing in its wash would feel a windless wind.

Since gravity distorts spacetime, it should be safe to assume there would be a time distortion wave associated with the 'tidal wash' you speak of, ie; you could not only be knocked down, you could be knocked back in time, however briefly....