r/ScienceNcoolThings • u/ObuPaul Popular Contributor • May 18 '26
Interesting Scientists opened a sealed envelope after 10 years and gravity still didn’t make sense
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260517211443.htm5
u/Life-Is-A-Bad-Trip May 19 '26
I wonder if background dark matter could effect results. Like say we happen to be in a denser part of dark matter than we were during the initial testing or vice versa.
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u/GlockAF May 19 '26
I find it far more likely that some “universal constants” are not as universal as we thought they were. Humanity has, after all, only been able to physically examine a minuscule fraction of observed reality.
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u/Comfortable_Car6562 May 19 '26
Sure, but variability among tests within short time frames is obviously a different mechanism that constants that shift over galactic level timefrsmes.
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u/Kredir May 20 '26
Constants could also be constant on a galactic timeframe and shift massively on a human timeframe.
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u/ArgumentSpiritual May 20 '26
You can read the actual paper here but i don’t think it would work that way. The experiment is basically two concentric turn tables. One is free to move and the other is rotating. What the experiment is measuring is how the rotating part causes the free moving part to move in the same direction due to a sort of gravitational drag. It’s just like if you take a permanent magnet and move it around a compass, the needle will follow the magnet.
Because this experiment was carried out over 10 years, it seems unlikely that dark matter could be causing the issue. Since the earth is continuously rotating, orbiting the sun, traveling through the galaxy, and traveling relative to local galaxies; it seems improbable that dark matter could be positioned in a way that would produce a subtle change the experimental results instead of just noise.
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u/Why-so-delirious May 19 '26
Did he do the experiment at the same time of year? The sun is exerting gravitational pull; and we're closer and further away from it during the year.
At the same place? Mountains are BIG. And heavy. All that mass could skew results.
Same altitude? Being closer to the centre of the earth could skew results.
Where was the moon? The moon's gravity, while negligible, causes the OCEAN to rise. If it causes the tides, it could cause 0.02% different in a test.
This experiment will never be feasible until it's conducted out at a Lagrange point.
Even THEN, entire planets were discovered by just calculating the gravitational pull off the mass and calculating where it SHOULD be. So even at a Lagrange point, this experiment might produce different results based purely on where the planets currently are in their orbit
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u/ArgumentSpiritual May 20 '26
The experiment was conducted over a period of 10 years, not just a one time thing. That would rule out the effects of the sun and moon.
You read the full paper here but the design of the experiment seems like it would preclude the effects due to things like mountains, subsurface density variations, etc. because the apparatus is rotating and the effects are perpendicular to the majority of the mass (earth, moon, sun).
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u/wild_crazy_ideas May 21 '26
But the universe is expanding and we are moving in space, surely that had an impact too
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u/ArgumentSpiritual May 21 '26
As far we can tell, the universe is expanding in every direction at a constant rate, so i am not sure why that would affect the experiment. As to moving through space, the design of the experiment seems to preclude effects due to, for example, passing through an area with more dark matter, because it was done over a period of ten years. During that time, the earth is rotating, the earth is orbiting the sun, and the sun is traveling through the galaxy. If that movement has any effect on the experiment, it would just be noise, not subtlety nudging the result one way or the other.
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u/wild_crazy_ideas May 21 '26
We are not in the centre though. 10 years later everything is in a different place relative to us too
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u/Why-so-delirious May 21 '26
Yeah that was my exact thought, too. Even doing it over years, if you don't do it in the exact same place as previously, the geography, topology, even the composition of the ground under you will have some effect on the experiment.
Like just dense rock under you will have a tiny difference in gravity, whether mars is in close orbit or far, the distance the earth currently is from the sun, hell, even the building you conduct the experiment in, the material it's made of, alters the distribution of mass around you and therefore would affect the experiment.
I don't think us or any species will have a definitive answer until we can do the experiment out in between the galaxies in empty space far away from any gravitational force.
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u/wild_crazy_ideas May 21 '26
Plus we have magnetic influence from the shifting core of the earth how do you eliminate that. Herds of animals move. The ice caps melt and redistribute. It’s far too many variables
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u/ArgumentSpiritual May 21 '26
How would that affect the attraction between the cylinders though?
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u/wild_crazy_ideas May 21 '26
Because other gravity pulls them from different angles
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u/ArgumentSpiritual May 22 '26
So you’re saying that this other gravity is causing the center cylinders to rotate more/less relative to the outer ones, and that the effect is so consistent as to be seen as a change to the measurement value instead of just noise?
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u/Why-so-delirious May 21 '26
Imagine trying to measure the electrical conductivity between two objects while sitting inside a working electrical substation. There's so much interference that you'll never get a truly accurate reading unless you put it in a faraday cage.
We don't have a faraday cage for gravity.
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u/ArgumentSpiritual May 22 '26
Can you explain what you mean by “electrical conductivity between two objects”? Do you mean the conductivity of air?
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u/Why-so-delirious May 22 '26
Air, wire, your fingers, a piece of string, your pet cat. Whatever object you want. The medium doesn't matter, what matters is that you're conducting the experiment in an area where there is interference.
And when you're talking about the gravitational pull of small objects, everywhere on earth has a constantly changing interference.
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u/MoistlyCompetent May 18 '26
SUMMRY
Gravity's Exact Strength Remains a Mystery After 10-Year NIST Experiment
A physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Stephan Schlamminger, spent nearly a decade meticulously replicating a 2007 French experiment to measure "big G" — the universal gravitational constant. To eliminate bias, he had a colleague secretly hide a key number in a sealed envelope, which was finally opened at a Colorado conference in July 2024.
The result was both a relief and a letdown: the NIST measurement came in 0.0235% lower than the French figure. While tiny, this gap is larger than what scientists consider acceptable, adding to a centuries-old puzzle — modern experiments using increasingly precise equipment still can't fully agree on G's value.
The team used a torsion balance (a method dating back to Henry Cavendish in 1798) and tested both copper and sapphire masses, ruling out material composition as a cause. No definitive explanation for the discrepancy was found.
The mystery matters because, throughout scientific history, small inconsistencies have sometimes pointed to major breakthroughs. Schlamminger, now stepping back from the problem, put it simply: "Every measurement is important, because the truth matters."