Ozgrav, also known as the gravity of Oz or the force of Oz, is a hypothetical form of antigravity or “negative gravity” that was first proposed by Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov in the 18th century. The name comes from the Ozymandias poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley: “I met a traveller from an antique land / Who said: ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone / Stand in the desert. . . Near them, on the sand, / Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown / And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command / Tell that its sculptor well those passions read / Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, / The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
‘And on the pedestal these words appear — / “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:/ Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”/ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay / Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare / The lone and level sands stretch far away.'”
In this poem, Ozymandias represents everything that is transitory and mortal about existence—in contrast to the eternal nature of art. Similarly, Lomonosov believed that while physical objects are subject to change and decay over time (as represented by Shelley’s crumbling statue), there must be some sort of underlying reality that is not subject to such change—a reality he referred to as Ozgrav.
Lomonosov’s idea was later expanded upon by other scientists such as Albert Einstein and Paul Dirac who both believed in the existence of a gravitational field with negative curvature (meaning it would repel rather than attract). This hypothetical field has since been dubbed “Ozgrav” by physicists.
While there is no direct evidence for Ozgrav as yet, its existence has been postulated as a way to explain certain cosmological phenomena such as dark energy and accelerated expansion of the universe. It has also been suggested as a means by which stars could be levitated or interstellar travel could be achieved without expending huge amounts of energy.
Whether or not Ozgrav actually exists remains to be seen; however, its continued exploration by scientists provides us with a greater understanding of our universe and helps us uncover new ways to explore it.