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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kwalish Kid" data-source="post: 484562" data-attributes="member: 446">Gravity and Straight linesWell, that's a good question. Gravity determines what a straight line is, so people tend to talk about everything else following the paths that gravity sets out. I'm not too sure of the answer yet, but I should be by this time next year.One thing I can say is that there are solutions to the Einstein field equations where the universe is expanding and it's not due to gravity. So you can have a world where the underlying grid of spacetime is changing and that determines the direction that gravitation effects will take.As far as quantum gravity goes... well, there's a lot of work being done. I'm not sure that anyone posits instantaneous gravity effects. Some do propose that gravity creates a preferred reference frame (physicists out there know what I mean)--and that would be a challenge to the special theory of relativity.Everyone buys that the General Theory of Relativity is a very accurrate theory. Almost everyone thinks it needs to be replaced, of course. I guess that means that everyone thinks that the gravity waves will coincide with light emitted from the region of space where the black holes are merging.(And in many ways, it is the math that demands this. The mathematical language used means that we can't have gravity moving FTL, or we get different numbers for key predictions. These numbers fall outside the range of data that has been collected from a number of quite accurate sources.)I recommend Lee Smolin's recent book on physics for further reading. He is currently working with a team to develop a quantization of gravity along traditional lines. They've gotten some surprising success--they were looking for failure! Of course, Clifford M. Will's classic and easily readable book, "Was Einstein Right?" remains my first recommention.</blockquote>

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