I Can't Put Down This Book about Anti-Gravity Quiz

Answer: Ion wind and electrostatic forces

As well as covering the history of anti-gravity in science fiction, this 2026 book examined the speculative research of scientists in the field of electrogravitics, such as the "lifting capacitor" experiments in the 1920s of the Biefeld-Brown effect in which triangular high-voltage capacitors were powered and appeared to then drift upward. However, the effect was caused by ionized air pushing the device; gravity was not being canceled. When the experiment was executed in a vacuum, the effect didn't occur, which disproved the anti-gravity theory.

Similarly, Thomas Townsend Brown made claims to devices that generated thrust with propellers or jets, but again cooler, scientific heads prevailed, and ion wind and electrostatic forces were shown to be the true reasons.

Answer: Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla's wireless power system was proposed as a method of energy transmission, not as a method of propulsion. Its relevance to anti-gravity was hypothetically theorized by the fringe scientists as possibly serving as a limitless power source for anti-gravity.

Nikola Tesla imagined a world where power could be drawn directly from the atmosphere via a grid of towers, a wireless power technology that the author presents as the key enabler for the premise of advanced propulsion in which airships could tap into this atmospheric energy, for a limitless power source, making theoretical anti-gravity propulsion possible.

Childress's book is a compilation of that and other material on anti-gravity, free energy, UFO propulsion theories, and cover-ups allegedly perpetrated by NASA.

Answer: New Zealand airline pilot

Mr. Cathie was a commercial pilot for National Airways Corporation of New Zealand, and it was his UFO sighting at Mangere, Auckland, which compelled him to apply his knowledge of the principles of air navigation to the question of whether there are UFOs.

He developed a complex theory centered on a geometric world grid - an invisible network of electromagnetic lines encircling the Earth. He proposed that UFOs navigated these lines, drawing on the Earth's own energy for propulsion. Cathie also used his grid theory to make broader claims, including the assertion that nuclear detonations require specific grid coordinates and planetary alignments. He even claimed this allowed him to successfully predict the timing of French nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll.

Answer: The Russian 1988 anti-gravity implosion disaster in Timucua

LaViolette reveals a secret project from the 1950s called "Project Skyvault" that tried to develop an aerospace propulsion system using intense beams of microwave energy, similar to technology reportedly seen in strange aircrafts over Area 51.

In the mid-1950s, many aviation companies were eager to developing anti-gravity technology. LaViolette noted that around 1959, it was "like a blackout in the media", assuming that this sudden silence was at the request of the United States government after a major breakthrough had been achieved and the subject became classified.

LaViolette claimed that the B-2 Spirit bomber was a contemporary aircraft that incorporated electrogravitic principles. He asserted that this gave it capabilities never seen publicly, such as the ability to hover silently and fly into the stratosphere to avoid radar detection.

Answer: Göbekli Tepe in Turkey

The discovery and excavation of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey didn't begin until the mid-1990s, about a decade after the book was released, so he never references it.

The book suggests that the energetic or geometric pattern of the World Grid organizes the Earth's energies and was understood and utilized by advanced ancient civilizations. The Great Pyramid is listed as one of the most significant features located at a major intersection of the "World Grid" of energy lines. It also claims Easter Island as among the "significant features of the major grid intersections", alongside sites like Giza, the Xian Pyramids, and Nan Madol. And Coral Castle is featured and used as an example of "acoustic levitation" and other mysteries connected to the World Grid.

Answer: Reverse engineering

The fundamental premise of the 2016 book is reverse-engineered from crashes. Now, while reverse engineering is a valid scientific tool when applied to real, verifiable objects and data, when applied to unverifiable, hidden, or hypothetical artifacts, it can verge on becoming storytelling-fringe science that doesn't always hold up to empirical scrutiny. Mr. Potter's scientific method is more speculative reverse engineering, working backward from a PRESUMED conclusion that UFOs are real, have crashed, and use anti-gravity. Then he seeks to find "evidence" that fits.

For starters, his so-called "artifacts" have not been verified. In addition, his claims cover theories of how UFOs generate both attractive and repulsive gravitational forces and produce electrical power, and how aliens manipulate the "mass-density matrix" to alter a vessel's physical dimensions and create a separate frame of reference with regard to time.

Answer: Discrete physics

Noyes proposed a 'discrete' or 'chunky' model of physics, in contrast to the mainstream view of reality as continuous fields. His speculative theory, based on discrete and combinatorial physics, uses 'bit-strings' which are finite sequences of ordered bits (like 0 and 1) - as the fundamental building blocks of existence, rather than smooth, infinitely divisible mathematical fields.

His discrete physics predicts that antiparticles will "fall up", i.e. exhibit gravitational repulsion from Earth, whereas normal particles show gravitational attraction.

It wasn't until 33 years later that experiments at CERN with antiprotons or anti-hydrogen tested his hypothesis. They disproved it, as their analysis confirmed that antihydrogen falls towards the Earth, not upwards.

Answer: Electrohydrodynamics

The book connects historical research with more contemporary speculation from the 1990s, claiming that the technology was incorporated into the B-2 Stealth Bomber's auxiliary propulsion system. The electrogravitics idea originated in the 1920s with inventor Thomas Townsend Brown, who "discovered" a link between high-voltage electricity and a propulsive force that he claimed was anti-gravity.

Despite some initial interest, the scientific consensus determined that Mr. Brown's findings were not anti-gravity, but were instead due to ionic wind or electrohydrodynamics (EHD). This occurs when a high voltage ionizes air particles, making the ions push against neutral air molecules, thus creating a breeze and a propulsive force in the opposite direction. The phenomenon requires air, as experiments showed the same effect didn't work in a vacuum, lending even greater proof that there was no "anti-gravity" involved.

Answer: A massive rotating body literally drags the fabric of space and time around with it.

First published in 1973, with a new edition in 2017, "Gravitation" mentions a discussion of hypothetical anti-gravity concepts such as one document about the physicist Robert L. Forward's models for generating "antigravity forces." The description notes a mathematical similarity between a device that creates a dipole electric field and a hypothetical device that could create a dipole gravitational field. The Lense-Thirring effect, also known as frame-dragging, involves Einstein's general theory of relativity when a moving or rotating huge body changes the mathematical rules for straight lines and clock rates in the space around it. Objects moving nearby act as if the entire local framework is slowly twisting in the direction of rotation.

One possible analogy to visualize this would be putting a heavy bowling ball in the center of a trampoline, which of course makes the trampoline sag. Now, if that bowling ball was spinning, that sag doesn't sit still; it develops a minute sort of swirl, like a whirlpool. Then if you rolled a marble near the bowling ball, that marble wouldn't follow a normal Newtonian ellipse around the bowling ball as it would if the bowling was sitting still and not spinning. With the spinning bowling ball, the Lense-Thirring effect (named after two scientists Josef Lense and Hans Thirring) has the marble nudged slightly sideways making an ellipse that isn't normal anymore, but is instead an elliptical plane that now tilts and rotates.

The effect is much more prominent with incredibly dense objects like black holes or neutron stars. But even with a relatively miniscule object like the Earth, scientists have still been able to measure the effect. At our planet's surface, it causes the orbital plane of a satellite to shift by only 39 milli-arcseconds per year. The NASA mission "Gravity Probe B" used ultra-precise gyroscopes in orbit to measure the "twist" (frame-dragging effect) on the spacetime of satellites, caused by Earth's rotation and show it was consistent with the value predicted by general relativity.

Answer: Nazi Germany

Published in 2002, the book explores the history of anti-gravity research, tracing a path from secret Nazi projects to classified U.S. government programs and connecting them to the modern UFO phenomenon. Mr. Cook's reporting begins in the waning years of World War II, describing how the Allies discovered that Nazi Germany was not only working on rocketry and jets but was also delving into more advanced technologies, including "flying discs" and a device known as the "Nazi Bell" ("Die Glocke" in German), roughly 9 feet wide and 12-15 feet tall. It was filled with a mysterious substance codenamed Xerum 525, and was allegedly designed to research anti-gravity effects.

Cook implies that a United States operation called "Project Paperclip" may have seized classified research on the subject from Nazi scientists, and then successfully developed the technology but covered up the project so secretively that it doesn't officially exist. Cook asserts that the reason so many disc-shaped UFO sightings occurred after World War II, is because discs are the perfect shape for anti-gravity vehicles. Part of his claims also involve this technology being applied to...yes, the B-2 stealth bomber again.