I have completed the test.
Just to quickly go over things, I was testing the 'small effect'.
The small effect is the effect relatively small sphere shapes have on the objects around them, creating an orbit.
This effect can be seen in the small planets, but is not seen on the larger moon and sun.
As such, I decided to prove it with a local sphere.
I am still unsure how to post an image, but I am able to backup the following with visual evidence if requested (with a tutorial on how).
On to the observations.
I decided to use 2 different pebbles, one copper coloured and of a rough shape, the other tin coloured and of a smooth shape. I figured these would cover both material differences and any sort of variation as for shape.
The pebbles were much smaller than the stone sphere I used, to simulate the relative size of moons/belts.
I also used a bouncy ball for control. As I know of no rubber moons.
For my first test, I suspended the pebbles about 10cm from the sphere and let go.
For the second test, I did the same as above, but attempted to provide some perpendicular motion. Almost throwing them.
For both tests, the pebbles were not suspending for any period of noticeable time or maintaining any form of noticeable orbit.
the second test had more motion, but this was in bouncing further away.
This is troubling, as it would indicate that the sphere being used exhibited no small effect.
The information I am missing, before throwing out this hypothesis entirely, is the size of planets that have moons/belts.
The closest one with moons that I can find is Mars. It has 2 moons, show off.
Now for the maths.
FE Sun is 32miles diameter, so 16miles radius. FE Mars is not anywhere on the wiki or discussed at all on the forum. We'll call that 2x, with the radius being x.
RE Sun is 695,508 km radius. RE Mars is 3390km radius.
so, as no other information is available beyond saying the planets are small, I will work out a ratio based on RE figures.
SUN:MARS 200:1
So, 16miles divided by 200 is 0.08 miles. So a FE mars should be... 420ft in radius. That is WAY bigger than my spherical rock and I know of no spherical object that big to test against.
Hmm. I know moons can have moons... And I found such a moon moon (yes, that's the actual term).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(357439)_2004_BL86This one, we shall call it 'Rock', has a radius of 150m, with it's moon moon being 70m across (not spherical).
Applying the Sun:Mars scale to this gives Rock's radius as less than a meter, so it can exhibit the small effect at that scale.
I had not measured the sphere I used, but I would hesitate to say it was noticeably smaller than Rock. Yet it exhibited no noticeable small effect.
I am loathe to admit it, but there may be a flaw somewhere along the line.
I am legitimately struggling to come up with a new hypothesis, as my test seems to disprove the small effect.
I'll start a new topic, as I have a few big questions.