One of the most obvious observations about
gravity is the simple aphorism “What goes up, must come down.” It’s just how gravity works – it pulls
things downwards. But then there’s this thing some people
talk about called antigravity. Is it real? Well, no. Or at least probably not. But respected scientists are looking into
it, which means that we need to know more. (intro music) It seems that a word like antigravity would
be easy to define. It should be the opposite of gravity – something
that would push you away from Earth, for example. But the term antigravity is used in many ways,
including dodgy things, like explaining how UFOs fly, which is, you know, kind of silly. However, researchers at CERN are investigating
the possibility of real antigravity using antimatter. And you gotta admit, that sounds totally cool. I’ll talk about this very real science in
a moment. But first, I think it would be fun to spend
a little more time on the silly stuff. So, let’s talk about some of the ideas you
can easily find if you surf the internet. The most common is when people imagine that
some sort of electrical current will overcome gravity. They go by names like gravitoelectrics or
sometimes electrogravitics, just to change it up. Then there is another term you'll find, called
gravitomagnetics. Now, first, all of these are just made up
terms. They sound all science-y and all, but they’re
not. And furthermore, different people will use
the same term for different phenomena. So that should tell you something about how
seriously you should take them. But here are some specific ideas. In the 1990s, a researcher claimed that rotating
superconducting disks would shield 2% of gravity. Another person has claimed that parallel plate
capacitors can shield gravity. Then there is the claim that flowing dense
fluids in pipes wrapped around a torus will create a repulsive gravitational field. While you’ll even find people who claim
to have made machines using these principles, none of these ideas have ever been replicated
by other researchers. Scientific claims that haven’t been replicated
should make you go “Hmmmmm.” And, of course, no discussion of antigravity
would be complete without touching on the UFO-enthusiast community. Some members claim that the U.S. government
is in possession of a crashed UFO or two. The most famous is the supposed crash of a
flying saucer at Roswell, which the story says was transferred to Hangar 18 at Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base. And who can forget the claims that at a facility
called S4, not far from the famed Area 51, that the US has not one, but seven captured
flying saucers, which the government has reversed engineered? Those would all be amazing if they were true. But they’re not. Now, I know that some of you will disagree
with me on topics of UFOs and captured flying saucers and antigravity technology. And others will claim that I’m lying to
hide the truth. But, to quote Carl Sagan, extraordinary claims
require extraordinary evidence. So, I say, “prove it.” And to make it worth your while, if you have
evidence of a true antigravity device, there’s a prize waiting you worth a million Euros,
which is over a million bucks. It’s called the Gode award and I put a link
to the award in the video description if you believe you have developed an antigravity
device. We live in a world in which it is possible
to make outlandish claims that then spread like wildfire across the internet. But that doesn’t make them true, no more
than the one I heard the other day, which was that that Fermilab’s famous Dr. Don
knew too much, so he was neutralized and replace with a high tech android using advanced alien
technology from Zeta Reticuli. And there’s no truth to that one. None at all. I’m not saying that antigravity is absolutely
impossible. Admittedly, it’s not something that currently
accepted physics theories allow, but I’m in the business of searching for phenomena
that aren’t described by currently accepted physics theories. So, I’d be thrilled if one of these ideas
worked out. It’s just none of them have so far. On the other hand, there are a few groups
of serious and respected researchers who are looking into what one might call antigravity. Basically, they ask “If matter falls down,
does antimatter fall up?” These experiments are done at CERN, Fermilab’s
sister laboratory in Europe. Now both laboratories know how to make antimatter. Making antiprotons or antielectrons is pretty
easy with the equipment we have. And Fermilab once had the world’s premier
antiproton production facility. But neither antiprotons nor antielectrons
are suitable because they have electric charge. And the electric force is enormously stronger
than gravity. The exact strength difference depends on whether
we’re talking about electrons or protons, but, ballpark- the electric force is like
ten to the forty times stronger than gravity. Ten to the forty is a big number. That means if you want to study the gravitational
behavior of antimatter that you need to shield your equipment incredibly well from stray
electromagnetic fields, or it will screw up your experiment. So, researchers at CERN get around that by
combining an antiproton with an antielectron, making an antihydrogen atom, which is electrically
neutral. It’s a clever solution that sounds easy,
but is pretty tricky. And the various different experimental groups
at CERN do it in different ways. Then the different experiments either launch
their antihydrogen upward or sideward or just release it from rest and look to see what
happens. Does antimatter fall down? Or up? There are several experiments at CERN vying
to be the first to make this measurement with names like Alpha-G, GBAR, and AEgIS. The competition is certainly intense. So, what’s the answer? The short answer is that we don’t know just
yet. But we should know soon. I visited the Alpha experiment a few years
ago and they were on the cusp of having the answer, but then the CERN accelerator complex
shut down for upgrades. And the Covid situation caused additional
delay. That makes me sad because I really want to
know the answer. So, what do most scientists think will happen? Pretty universally, we all think that antimatter
will fall down, just like matter does. The reason is that for both Newtonian gravity
and General Relativity, gravitational force depends on the mass of an object, and we’ve
measured the mass of antimatter subatomic particles and it’s exactly the same as their
corresponding matter particles. The mass of an antiproton is the same as the
mass of a proton. We’ve measured that. But- and this is a big but- we’ve measured
the inertial mass of antimatter particles, not their gravitational mass. Inertial mass is a measure of how particles
resist change in motion, while gravitational mass is a measure of how they are affected
by gravity. I made an entire video on the difference,
which you definitely should watch. I put a link to that other video in the description
for this video. For matter, inertial and gravitational mass
are the same. In fact, that’s a key assumption of Einstein’s
theory of general relativity. It even has a name. It’s called the equivalence principle. But the simple fact is that we’ve not measured
the gravitational mass of antimatter. Maybe the equivalence principle doesn’t
apply to antimatter. Maybe, for antimatter, gravitational mass
is the negative of inertial mass. If so, that would be a very big deal. And it is, indeed, possible that antimatter
falls up. We’re going to have to wait for the experimental
results to be announced. Don’t expect anything for many months – probably
a year. But it’s coming and the measurement is going
to be super epic. This is real science. On the other hand, bringing this back to the
scientifically irresponsible side of the antigravity conversation, even if the CERN experiments
find that antimatter falls up, that doesn’t help us with making gravity shields in our
house, nor does it really explain the claims of the UFO community. Antimatter is exceedingly dangerous and outrageously
hard to make, and that would still be true even with very advanced technology. And it’s also still true that magnets, superconductors,
capacitors, and spinning toroids don’t cancel gravity. Sorry guys. But keep an eye out for the CERN results. It’s going to be awesome. Hi guys. If you liked the video, please be sure to
subscribe to the channel and share on social media. And, while you’re doing it, why not subscribe
to Fermilab’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels? Lots of good stuff over there. If you subscribe, there’s a good chance
that you’ll learn some amazing physics. And who wouldn’t like that? After all, as you know, physics is everything. (outro music)
A few scientist are now saying gravity is an effect of something we dont yet know, not a force itself.
And will it blend?
I always thought it was probably some kind of anti mass field would allow ppl to go that fast without pancaking if they were all in some kind of bubble that messed with the higgs field
Respected scientist are looking into it ❤️👍🏼
So making antimatter is pretty easy but also pretty hard. Noted. Easy or not, it's amazing that we can make that.
I know how dumb this sounds but damn was I distracted by his blazer. Get that shit tailored, man.
I appreciate that he never once said that UFOs are fictitious or people interested in them are crazy/stupid. Just that most speculation about how they work isn't scientifically sound.
Should have talked about Pais’s inventions…
Why does it have to be anti gravity? Why can't it just be more gravity?
i.e. The craft creates a stronger gravitational pull in the direction it wants to travel, it 'falls' upwards so to speak?
Clearly the power required would be immense, but not impossible, right?
Gravity is not taught properly in class.
Why do they not teach us of the word “Dielectric”. Why do they not teach us of our source?
Tesla quote
Gravity is dielectric acceleration.
It’s non-point specific, it’s not an autonomous field modality, and should not exist like many other overtly expressed views like “waves”
“Waves” do not exist, they are what something (Water, Sound, Light) does, not what something is.
“Static energy” like rubbing a balloon on your head, Dark Matter/Energy is the same source like the majority of our “inertia”.
The same source as an AC generator, we’re taught it’s kinetic energy. Do you believe a monkey just has to rotate copper wire until the magnetic energy turns inside out?
The Aether is one and the same or “consubstantial” to all that is.
As magnetic energy inverts, it interacts with the aether (dark matter/energy) and the flux produces electricity.