Bentley's paradox
Encyclopedia
Bentley
's paradox is a cosmological paradox pointing to a problem occurring when Newton's theory of the gravitation
is applied to cosmology: "According to Newton, each star in the universe ought to be attracted towards every other star. They should not remain motionless, at a constant distance from each other, but should all fall together to some central point. Newton admitted as much in a letter to Richard Bentley
, a leading Cambridge philosopher of the time. The solution for this paradox is that, all the stars are not influenced by one gravitational force but there are many forces acting on the body, hence, forcing it to be either temporarily stationary, or to undergo very slight motion. The theory of Big Crunch suggests a same thing, that the Universe will collapse by a bang at a point where all matter meets."
Richard Bentley
Richard Bentley was an English classical scholar, critic, and theologian. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge....
's paradox is a cosmological paradox pointing to a problem occurring when Newton's theory of the gravitation
Newton's law of universal gravitation
Newton's law of universal gravitation states that every point mass in the universe attracts every other point mass with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them...
is applied to cosmology: "According to Newton, each star in the universe ought to be attracted towards every other star. They should not remain motionless, at a constant distance from each other, but should all fall together to some central point. Newton admitted as much in a letter to Richard Bentley
Richard Bentley
Richard Bentley was an English classical scholar, critic, and theologian. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge....
, a leading Cambridge philosopher of the time. The solution for this paradox is that, all the stars are not influenced by one gravitational force but there are many forces acting on the body, hence, forcing it to be either temporarily stationary, or to undergo very slight motion. The theory of Big Crunch suggests a same thing, that the Universe will collapse by a bang at a point where all matter meets."