Constructing a Universe from Two Hydrogen Atoms – Gravity as Residual Electromagnetism

1. Two hydrogen atoms: pure electromagnetic attraction

A hydrogen atom is usually called “neutral”, but that is only true after we average over angles and distance. At the atomic scale, its electromagnetic field is:

structured, not perfectly spherical,
tied to the arrangement of proton and electron,
directional, not isotropic.

Take two such atoms in otherwise empty space. The attraction between them is:

electromagnetic in origin,
directional (depending on their relative orientation),
not “gravitational” in any separate sense.

At the very beginning of the universe, if it were just two hydrogen atoms, the force between them would be electromagnetic, not gravitational.

2. Building a chain: adding hydrogen atoms on each side

Now add hydrogen atoms one by one on both sides, making a simple 1D chain:

At each step:

neighboring atoms still attract electromagnetically,
the fields from the left and right start to cancel in the middle,
the overall structure becomes more symmetric and less directional.

The attraction is still there, but:

it looks less magnetic or electric,
it is harder to detect as a “field” pointing one way,
it becomes more like a uniform pull between lumps of matter.

At some scale, we stop calling it electromagnetism and start calling it “mass attracting mass”. But the construction remembers its origin.

3. Easier version: a bar-magnet demonstration

The same logic can be shown with bar magnets, which are easier to see and hold than hydrogen atoms.

The hydrogen case is similar to the magnet case. Instead of north and south poles, we have negative and positive charge. Instead of bar magnets spinning around one end, we have electrons moving around protons.

When many such objects are arranged symmetrically:

electromagnetic fields cancel directionally,
the leftover effect is weak,
but the attraction does not vanish.

At the macroscopic scale, for big symmetric packs of matter, that residual, non-directional attraction is what we call gravity.

4. Comparing hydrogen atoms with bar magnets

The hydrogen construction and the magnet-bar analogy describe the same idea: electromagnetic attraction becomes weaker and less directional when symmetry increases. But there is one important difference between the two systems.

Hydrogen atoms: spinning electromagnetic orientation

A hydrogen atom is not static. The electron cloud continually changes orientation, giving the atom a rotating, time-averaged electromagnetic character.

The EM field is dynamic, not fixed.
The “orientation” of the atom changes constantly.
Clusters of such rotating atoms cancel their directionality naturally.

Many hydrogen atoms together become symmetric quickly, making their electromagnetic origins harder to detect and leaving only a small residual attraction — gravity.

Bar magnets: fixed poles, no spinning

Bar magnets, by contrast, have fixed north and south poles. Their fields do not rotate. The cancellation must be created manually by arranging magnets in opposite directions.

A magnet’s field is static and directional.
Cancellation depends on geometry, not natural rotation.
Even symmetric packs may leave visible magnetic bias unless arranged perfectly.

Dynamic versus static cancellation

The difference can be summarized simply:

Hydrogen: rotating fields → smooth cancellation → isotropic residual → gravity
Magnets: fixed fields → geometric cancellation → leftover directionality

Hydrogen is like a magnet whose poles spin so fast they blur into a sphere. A bundle of such spinning “magnets” becomes highly symmetric, hiding almost all electromagnetic structure. The remaining uniform pull is what we call gravity.

5. Why magnet arrangements matter — magnetic or not

In the magnet-bar analogy, the final behavior of the assembled object depends entirely on how the magnets are arranged. A symmetric pack can become almost non-magnetic, while an asymmetric or imperfect arrangement can remain strongly magnetic.

Magnetic if arrangement is imperfect

If the bars are not perfectly aligned (for example, N–S beside N–S), the pack retains a clear external magnetic field. The cancellation is incomplete, and the directionality remains.

Non-magnetic if symmetry is deep

But if the magnets are arranged with high symmetry (for example, two magnets placed N–S next to S–N, or a four-magnet square), the external poles cancel.

The pack behaves like a piece of iron:

no visible magnetism,
no preferred direction,
yet attraction inside the structure remains.

Magnetism can disappear externally while the internal electromagnetic structure remains. The attraction stays; the directionality vanishes. That is the essence of gravity.

Comparison with hydrogen

Hydrogen atoms contain electrons whose motion gives each atom a rotating electromagnetic orientation. This rotation makes the hydrogen cluster naturally symmetric over time.

Magnets require geometric arrangement to cancel their poles.
Hydrogen atoms cancel directionality automatically by rotation.

Magnets can be magnetic or not, depending on arrangement; hydrogen tends toward the non-magnetic, symmetric case by nature. At large scale, this leaves only a uniform residual attraction — gravity.

6. Continuous models and the need for a graviton

In the usual continuous model, a star or a planet is treated as a mass point. All the internal electromagnetic structure is averaged away. What remains is just “mass at a point”.

Once all electromagnetic information is erased, there is no choice:

a new carrier (the graviton) must be introduced,
a separate field (gravity) must be postulated on top.

In contrast, the discrete construction from hydrogen atoms and magnets keeps the electromagnetic origin visible at every step. A “graviton-like” entity can be built as:

a highly symmetric pack of magnets or charges,
whose external field is almost cancelled,
but which still produces a uniform pull on other matter.

It is not a new particle from nowhere. It is a composite, symmetric electromagnetic object — only much larger than the idealized graviton.

7. What this construction shows

Starting from two hydrogen atoms, or two magnets, we can:

see that the original attraction is electromagnetic and directional,
see how symmetry cancels the directionality step by step,
keep a residual attraction that no longer looks magnetic or electric.

The name changes — magnetism, charge, mass, gravity — but the underlying logic stays:

Large, neutral objects are made from smaller electromagnetic pieces. Gravity is what remains when almost all the electromagnetic structure is hidden by symmetry.