Lloyd,
Looks like we are going off topic here, but look at the LeSage portion of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical ... ravitation
Fatio's work is more commonly credited to LeSage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Sage%27 ... ravitation
At this stage all you need to understand is the basic "shadowing" mechanism that results in objects being pushed together
by the field.
You should understand that I did not research, and then settle on the Fatio/LeSage theory as the most satisfactory. I started with a blank sheet of paper and my only agenda was that gravity should have a physical cause. I independently concluded that a
randomly moving aethereal particle field is the only physical possibility. Gravitational force, and thence acceleration, at any given point between two objects is therefore dependent on the mass density and size of the objects and the distance between them. Having satisfied myself that my model was an accurate representation of Newtonian gravity, I then discovered via google that Mr Fatio had come to an almost identical conclusion 350 years previously.
Despite the social, political and financial success of the 120 year cult of energy substance, a non-agenda led analysis shows that mass is a measure of interaction. Two masses in the field interact with the field such that the field produces a net pushing force that pushes the two masses toward each other. This force is the result of the combined effects of interaction of both masses with the field, hence GMM/r
2. The inverse square is rather obvious, but the important points are the "mass times mass" and the gravitational coefficient G. Without going into too much detail here, G defines the mass density and also includes the effect of repulsive "charge". As I have pointed out many times, charge, and thereby electromagnetism in general, is of course not "electric". That is to say it is simply another kinetic mechanism within the field; another type of interaction between matter and the field. I realise such comments fly in the face of religious fervour that yearns for an innate "electric" property, but long after the inaccuracies of analyses past have been forgotten, physics and logic will remain satisfied.
Anyway, as you can see gravity, a force caused by one physical medium acting upon another, is doing work, so our digression is not as entirely off topic as it may have first seemed. Further study has led me to uncover the inadequacies of Newton's otherwise accurate and most excellent equations.
(Note: in the above, "the field", is interchangeable with and may be freely replaced by "the aethereal field", "the aether", "the quantum aether",.... In short, "the field" is "the aether". As a field that conveys forces and mediates interactions between matter it is a direct physical replacement for action at a distance. Also, as a field that conveys forces, it presents extremely important consequences for considering the nature and operation of light.)
Michael