Though gravitational pressure decreases as you go deeper, the force of the weight of material pressing down will be substantial down to a reasonable depth.

The 2 factors involved include:

1. The mass above the material in question.

2. The mass surrounding the material in question

At some point below the surface the increase of accumulated mass will be offset by the decreasing directional pull. It would seem that this point would be very close to the center, but who knows?

The main question is, can critical mass be achieved with the pressures available within the earth? Critical mass is the pressure at which nuclear reactions begin to take place. If earth has a nuclear reaction inside generating heat, the heat should continue be generated..

If critical mass isn't achievable, then the heat inside would be gradually dissipated letting the earth core cool. The diameter of the earth would decrease as the heat was lost due to thermal contraction.

The earth's crust would thicken as well.

Certainly, there isn't enough gravity near the core. The question is, is there enough anywhere. Probably not. So, the heat within the earth is dissipating into the atmosphere and the core is cooling. The core must also be contracting applying seismic pressure to the thin outer crust. The crust is already broken into "tectonic plates" with each pushing against each other causing earthquakes every time they move suddenly.

What is Gravity Anyway?

We seem to know all about gravity. But, what causes the force keeping us on our planet? Noone seems to have a definitive answer. One thing that prevents us from pinning down it's origin and understanding its cause is the problem of gravity's slipperiness, so to speak. We can't seem to define any way to alter its effects. You can't mask it's effects with known materials.

With light you can interfere with it in a multitude of ways. Colored glass, black cloth, mirrors, etc. allow us to test all sort of properties of light in controlled conditions and unravel how light works and understand the physics behind it. Unlike light, gravity cannot currently be created or distorted with electrical means. A thousand metal plates can be stacked on top of each other and gravity will act on the top plate the same way it acts on the bottom one.

Without ways of manipulating gravity, there is no way to test theories about it's source. All we can do is observe it's behavior and how it effects objects. There is a tight relationship between mass, inertia and gravity which suggests to me that neutrons may have a central roll in gravity's generation. If neutrons are the major players behind mass and inertia, maybe its because they are also behind gravity.

Could be as simple as that. Neutrons are'nt attracted to electrons or protons. Are they attracted to each other? Neutrons have no electrical "charge". Could they instead have a "gravitational charge" or affinity for each other.

Let's take this possibility a bit further. Could the presence of immense quantities of these "particles" produce a net effect of attracting other large bodies containing them?

Now, let's consider the phenomenum we refer to as, "inertia". Bodies containing lots of neutrons resist acceleration in any direction. This quality is "inertia". This is what keeps satellites in orbit around earth. Once they are set in motion in the vacuum of space, they will maintain their speed and distance above earth almost indefinitely.

Why is this so? Do atoms that have no neutrons resist acceleration? Hydrogen has no neutrons, but does exhibit inertia as far as i know. So, there goes the neutron theory anyway.

Sometimes gravity acts in odd ways especially in the case of the phenomenum known as a "vortex". Liquids and gases don't behave quite the way solid materials do in the presence of gravity. A vortex can form whenever a liquid or gas moves in the vertical plane towards or away from a gravitational generating object.

Every time you flush a toilet, the water will spin round and round as the water falls down the drain. This is a vortex. As the water spins in the drain it is able to fall faster than if there vortex is not started.

Try this simple experiment:

Fill a sink with water and open the drain. Time how long it takes for the water to empty out. Notice if a vortex forms, note the direction the water spins- usually when the sink is almost empty. Now, refill the sink to the same level as before and once again open the drain. Time how long it takes to drain only this time start to spin the water around slowly with your hand in the same direction it was spinning the first time(be careful not to cause the water to spill over the sides of the sink!).

Did it take less time to drain the second time or more? It should take less time. Why does spinning the water as it falls into a drain help it fall faster? The spin seems to intensify the pull of gravity more and more as you move to the center of a vortex causing that airspace to form in the center with a wall of water spinning all around it.

When the air, or some gas forms a vortex, we call it a "dust devil" or if it reaches all the way to the clouds, a "tornado" or a "twister". In the center of a large, powerful tornado the spin will cause such intense centifugal force that a strong vacuum will form inside the column of air. As this type of vortex passes over trees, they sometimes explode as the vacuum boils the sap and water inside the tree trunk generating intense pressure inside the trunk bursting it.

Also, large heavy objects like cars and trucks may be lifted into the air a carried along near a powerful tornado. Strangely though, these objects don't enter the center of the vortex as you might expect, but instead float around in the fast verically moving air along the outside fringes of the vortex. In this way, tornados behave as a gravitational anomalie. That is there appears to be some means of defeating gravity beyond the simple force of air moving at great speed.

I suspect that in some way the spin helps distort the pull of gravity by increasing it's pull at the center and decreasing it towards the fringe of the moving mass. That is, it channels the gravity's intensity from the fringe of the spinning mass to the core.

But, there's another problem to consider with the vortex. Vortecies don't form at the earth's equator and they reverse spin direction as you go from one side of the equator to the other. This is thought to be because natural votecies are induced by the earth's spin on it's axis.

Even giant galaxies way out in space and our own the, "Milky Way" usually have a spiral to them as though they too are a sort of vortex. Understanding the vortex may help us unlock the mysteries of this thing called, "gravity". Yet, gravity is one of the most fundamental principles in the universe. The glue that holds matter together in so many amazing ways. Always just in front of us, but always out of reach. The One that came up with the idea obviously knew what He was doing!

Wayne Hollyoak