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It is unclear why gravity exists, but it is associated with matter and mass. The more massive an object, the greater the gravitational force it exerts. From the general theory or relativity, time is slowed by mass and the path of a particle in the vicinity of a mass is curved in an attempt to go in a straight line in curved space time. If this statment is correct then gravity was created in the big bang when quarks combined to form particles with mass. There is one worrying aspect to this simple picture, Light has no mass only energy, according to Einstien's E=MC2 mass and energy are related but then it is implied that gravity acts on energy. The energy of a particle is a function of its wavelength, its wavelength and spin being a function of time. I believe that ultimately gravity comes from the combined spin of all the particles that go to make up the mass in question. Unfortunately this is just metaphysics as it is not possible to test. Gravity is a characteristic of all mass, and it is not yet clear what the nature of gravity really is. It is possibe that it is related to the as yet undiscovered Higgs Boson. When we develop a "theory of everything", it will give us a picture of gravity that can be explained in Quantum terms, and this will be a huge step forward. The problem of gravity acting on light is actually addressed above. Light bending as a result of gravity can be seen not as a 'force' acting on massless photons, but as light passing through space that is itself warped. Light follows what is for it the straightest path through space.

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17y ago

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