Newsgroups: sci.physics.plasma
From johncobb@uts.cc.utexas.edu Wed Jan 11 10:26:12 1995
From: johncobb@uts.cc.utexas.edu (John W. Cobb)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin; Austin, Texas
Subject: Re: plasma gravity

In article <3ev409$8ju@mojo.eng.umd.edu>, <markcln@on-ramp.ior.com> wrote:
> A friend of mine recently told me that ducts beneath the floor
>of a space station filled with particular types of plasma similar to what
>is used in flourescent lights connected to an enormously large power source
>could create a gravitational pull. I don't really see how this could happen.
>Could anyone enlighten me?
>
The only thing it will pull is your leg. :>

Seriously, the only way to create a "gravitational pull" is with mass, and
a lot of it. The entire earth with all of its big mass only pulls you at 1 g,
so you can see that anything on an engineerable scale will have only secondary
effects.

If your friend wasn't joking, he may have been referring to some vague idea
about using electromagnetic forces from a plasma and perhaps a static charge on
"whatever is to be pulled", but it seems quite a stretch.

The final alternative is that the martians did penetrate the aluminum foil
underneath your friends cap and they are controlling his mind so that he
is saying such things. OOOh, those martians, they make me so mad.

-john .w cobb
[The strong gravitational force is unavailable for use today. Instead we
have substituted the weak nuclear force instead. We apologize in advance
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--
John W. Cobb 16% of all Perot voters believe that if Dolphins
are so smart, they should be able to get out of
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