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From: ephraim@uw-larry (Carrick Talmadge)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: A Question
Message-ID: <2032@uw-beaver.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Nov-86 20:54:22 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.2032
Posted: Fri Nov  7 20:54:22 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Nov-86 18:43:55 EST
References: <230@sri-arpa.ARPA> <523@husc6.HARVARD.EDU>
Sender: nobody@uw-beaver.UUCP
Reply-To: ephraim@uw-larry.UUCP (Carrick Talmadge)
Organization: U of Washington, CSCI, Seattle
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In article <523@husc6.HARVARD.EDU> hadeishi@husc4.UUCP (mitsuharu hadeishi) writes:
>	Recently some physicists were going over the data of
>old experiments trying to establish the equivalence of inertial
>and gravitational mass and claimed to have found slight
>differences between atoms of different atomic number.  They attributed
>this to an effect related to a quantity they called "hypercharge."
>Apparently their result was flawed by a sign error, however,
>so it is very dubious at the moment.


Actually the "sign error" in the original analysis as now been resolved.
There was a sign *discrepancy* between the result implied by the Eotvos
experiment (the 1908 experiment you refer to), when one analyzes the
experimental result in terms a spherical rotating Earth, and the result implied
by the geophysical result of Frank Stacey.  For purposes of analyzing such
experiments as the Eotvos experiment, this simple model of the Earth appears
inadequate (at least if one is discussing the possibility of an intermediate
range force [one whose range is on the order of a few hundred meters]).
When a more realistic model is employed (one which takes into account the
local matter distribution), there no longer appears to be any real
problems with the analysis.

Of course the real question at this time is whether such an effect actually
exists in nature, but this can only be resolved by ongoing experiments
(such as three which are underway here at UW).  An interesing article
on the current status of the "fifth force" may be found in the latest
Physics Today.


Carrick Talmadge