Zero Knowledge of Zero Gravity
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Greetings I learned some time ago from a source I now do not recall the astronauts aboard the Space Station do not experience micro-gravity or zero g in the expected sense In fact it was explained the force of Earth's gravity at that altitude is in fact just under .9 of the surface They are merely falling along w/ the station So it is no different than the "Vomit Comet" It would be nice if the popular press would explain it so Kind Regards - Cheerio My sympathies to the SPAM moderator
AFAIK, a body is considedered to be in a micro-G situation when the sum of all forces acting on it, except gravitational forces, result in something lower than a certain limit, let's say, 9.8x10-6 m/s2.
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You are asking the wrong question. From the POV of General Relativity, the question isn't "why things fall", but "what makes them stop when they hit the ground?" A less facetious answer would be that an massive object "warps space-time" around it. The objects in orbit are moving along a path (I.e. both position and velocity) in that "warped space-time" that avoids intersection with the massive object. (If you want a more quantative answer, study Physics to reach the level of confusion enjoyed by most physicists... :) )
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
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It isn't. According to General Relativity's Principle of Equivalence, a local acceleration may be treated as a "gravitational" field, and vice versa. No acceleration == no "gravitational" field. (For those that claim that they are not being accelerated while sitting in a chair here on Earth, that is because powerful non-"gravitational" forces are acting in the opposite direction. In General Relavivity, it is not "why things fall" that requires explaining, but why they stop when they hit the ground...)
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
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Greetings I learned some time ago from a source I now do not recall the astronauts aboard the Space Station do not experience micro-gravity or zero g in the expected sense In fact it was explained the force of Earth's gravity at that altitude is in fact just under .9 of the surface They are merely falling along w/ the station So it is no different than the "Vomit Comet" It would be nice if the popular press would explain it so Kind Regards - Cheerio My sympathies to the SPAM moderator
The main difference between "being in a 0 gravity field" and "orbiting in a station around earth" is that in the 2nd case, you are spinning at the same rotational speed as the station so Coriolis force applies and if you throw an object to a friend in the station, it will not follow a straight line (as the object would do in the first case) but a curve.