Volume 20: Pages 535-551, 2007)

Static Pendulum with Contactless 2D Sensor Measurements Opens the Question of Gravity Dynamic and Gravity Noise on Earth's Surface

Libor Neumann ¹

¹Brdičkova 1910, 155 00 Praha 5 — Lužiny, Czech Republic

This paper deals with time variation measurements made by a static pendulum at the surface of Earth and above the surface in the horizontal plane. Measurements made by three similar measurement sets in 15 locations over more than 4 years are the main data source. A static pendulum (pendulum with an absorber that absorbs the pendulum's own swings) with a 2D static optical contactless sensor was used to measure quantity variation. The basic conclusions are as follows: (1) the time‐dependent physical quantity that interacts with the pendulum mass was repeatedly measured in all different locations and by different measurement devices; (2) the measured quantity includes a great irregular component with pink noise (1/f) character; (3) the measured quantity includes a significant regular component with 24.00‐h basic period and seemingly random amplitude; (4) an absorption (shielding) effect caused by material between the source and the measurement device was recognized; (5) the space dependency of the measured quantity is significantly different from Newton's gravity; (6) the measured quantity should be interpreted as an unknown dynamic gravity effect and gravity noise; the new discovery of Sun surface effects can support this interpretation.

Keywords: gravity measurement, tilt measurement, static pendulum, optical position measurement, horizontal plane measurement, gravity field, noise, contact‐less measurement, zero‐force sensor

Received: February 17, 2005; Published Online: October 7, 2009