Question: in the future is it possible that there would be a machine that decreases gravity in an ordinary room?

David Freeborn answered on 18 Jun 2013:

Hi Lucysey,

Interesting question. Yes, it is possible, but so far we don’t know how to do it.

Gravitational fields behave in a very similar way to electric and magnetic fields, and we can already block out those fields in a device called a “Faraday Cage”. It might be possible to do something similar with gravity, but so far the technology is way too advanced.

Some theories predict “negative gravity” objects. In fact, we think a lot of the Universe might be made up of invisible negative-gravity stuff called “dark energy”. If we could somehow harness that, we could use it to decrease the gravitational field easily, in any particular room. But so far, we don’t know how to do that.

I’d really like to think these things might be possible in the future.

One way to cheat would be to use acceleration. Einstein’s theory of relativity showed the gravitational fields are equivalent to acceleration- this is why you feel heavier or lighter in an accelerating elevator. So we can already mimic what it would be like to live in a gravity-free-environment, or a really-powerful-gravity-environment by making objects accelerate very, very fast. Some scientists think that is what we will do in spaceships in the future, to make astronauts feel like they are still on earth.