Index: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Home > Allais effect
The Allais effect describes an increase in the period of a moving pendulum during a solar eclipse, and was initially speculated to be unexplained by standard physical models of gravitation. It was first reported in 1954 by Maurice Allais, a French economist who went on to win the Nobel prize for Economics. The most recent published observation was by Wang et al. in 2000, for an experiment carried out during the March 9, 1997 total solar eclipse in the Mohe region of northeast China — however, the same authors later (2002 and 2003) published papers showing how their observations could be explained by conventional thermal phenomena (e.g. temperature and pressure changes) caused by the eclipse. A recent published article on the topic in a mainstream scientific journal (Flandern, 2003) concludes that there have been "no unambiguous detections [of an Allais effect] within the past 30 yearswhen consciousness of the importance of [experimental] controls was more
widespread." Exotic explanations for Allais effects have therefore not gained significant traction among mainstream scientists.
References and external links
- T. van Flandern and X. S. Yang, "Allais gravity and pendulum effects during solar eclipses explained," Phys. Rev. D 67, 022002 (2003).
- X. S. Yang and Q. S. Wang, "Gravity anomaly during the Mohe total solar eclipse and new constraint on gravitational shielding parameter," Astrophysics and Space Science 282 (1), 245–253 (2002).
- Qian-shen Wang, Xin-she Yang, Chuan-zhen Wu, Hong-gang Guo, Hong-chen Liu, and Chang-chai Hua, "Precise measurement of gravity variations during a total solar eclipse," Phys. Rev. D 62, 041101(R) (2000).
- M. Allais, C. R. Acad. Sci. URSS 244, 2469 (1959); 245, 1875 (1959); 245, 2001 (1959); 245, 2170 (1959); 245, 2467 (1959).
- Chris P. Duif, "A review of conventional explanations of anomalous observations during solar eclipses," arXiv gr-qc/0408023 v3 (8 Oct 2004). (Unpublished preprint claiming that Allais observations do not satisfy conventional explanations.)
- Thomas J. Goodey, "The shearing hypothesis and the Allais eclipse effect." (Web site claiming unconventional physics explanation for Allais effect.)
- Dave Dooling, "French Nobel Laureate turns back clock", Science@NASA (Oct. 12, 1999). A 1999 NASA attempt to observe an Allais effect; no results are reported. (No results were apparently ever published.)
Physics
Read more »