How Come Gravity Doesn't Give A Hoot About Weight?

[Hervé]

From theory to practice... watch this amazing, mind blowing video:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=E43-CfukEgs

Published on Oct 24, 2014
Programme website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0276q28 Brian Cox visits NASA’s Space Power Facility in Ohio to see what happens when a bowling ball and a feather are dropped together under the conditions of outer space.

[aranuk]

Thanks Herve, can anyone explain that so it is clear what happened please? I am confused. Why did they fall at the same rate? Was gravity redundant or was it on holiday? So why did they fall at all? Was Einstein correct or not?

Stan

[Operator]

Now I am confused ...



Isn't weight the result of gravity (and mass) ?

More simple explanation here: http://www.gcsescience.com/pfm18.htm

The acceleration due to gravity
(how fast things accelerate when you drop them)
is approximately 10 m/s2.

What's puzzling is that they drop both equally fast (in vacuum without airflow resistance) but that is because the acceleration
is the same for all objects +/- 10 m/s2

The acceleration is independent from mass

[ghostrider]

Einstein was correct ... what we learn is that electricity and gravity are cousins , and gravity doesn't respect matter , it makes everything weigh less , size is irrelevant , atoms and such react all the same when electricity/gravity is present ... greater the gravity greater the pull on ALL , less gravity less pull on ALL ... it's what it does on the atomic level , and so on down to the smaller circles , quarks , and sub neutrinos ...it's all energy held and influenced by spiritual energy ...

[Dennis Leahy]

That was cool! We've all seen some non-gravity videos inside space stations, but the "feather and the bowling ball", in a vacuum, is a classic.

Thanks for finding that Herve!

Dennis

[Operator]

I've referred to this video before:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=eaV-GeAPSlE

It's from the now deceased Dutch astronaut Wubbo Ockels. He talks about time and gravity, they are related.
One of the things I remember him saying is that after a couple of months in space, no gravity, it feels like
you are standing in an elevator when you stand on your both feet on earth again. As if you are accelerated
upward ... when you are born on this planet and have no other experience than walking in this gravity your
brain is trained to persuade you that you are standing still. How's that for a change ... ?

[araucaria]

The feather and the ball drop because gravity has not been offset as it would be in space; only air resistance has been removed. As I understand it, they fall at the same rate because their difference in mass is negligible with respect to the earth’s. If that ball was hugely dense, you would expect the floor to rise and the earth to meet it halfway.

[Hervé]

Posted by Operator (here)
[...]

The acceleration is independent from mass

... and therefore... doesn't give a hoot about what it's accelerating... everything is equally attracted or repulsed.

The force it exerts is modified by the mass (see the punching hole of the impact of the bowling ball compared to no impact hole for the feathers... yet they fell at the same speed )

[sigma6]

cool idea, spending a million bucks to play with physics... Now if were were Nazis the next experiment would be the effect of a complete vacuum on a human being ... ok, we could put a Rothschild Banker and a world leader in there and see if the fundamental theory of inflation applies equally to both

[Frank V]

Posted by sigma6 (here)
cool idea, spending a million bucks to play with physics... Now if were were Nazis the next experiment would be the effect of a complete vacuum on a human being ... ok, we could put a Rothschild Banker and a world leader in there and see if the fundamental theory of inflation applies equally to both

Only one? I would pull all of them in there. (Just kidding - I'm not homicidal. :-))

[Operator]

Posted by Hervé (here)

Posted by Operator (here)
[...]

The acceleration is independent from mass

... and therefore... doesn't give a hoot about what it's accelerating... everything is equally attracted or repulsed.

The force it exerts is modified by the mass (see the punching hole of the impact of the bowling ball compared to no impact hole for the feathers... yet they fell at the same speed )

I agree ... but given the title of the thread I was crossing the t's and dotting the i's
Of course mathematically everything can be rearranged left and right from the = sign.
But the bottom line is that the acceleration is constant.

Additionally in common language weight and mass are often mixed up. People express weight and
weight-loss in pounds or kilograms ... in fact they are talking about mass.

The best gym (quickest way) for weight-loss is going to outer space ...

[Operator]

Posted by Aragorn (here)

Posted by sigma6 (here)
cool idea, spending a million bucks to play with physics... Now if were were Nazis the next experiment would be the effect of a complete vacuum on a human being ... ok, we could put a Rothschild Banker and a world leader in there and see if the fundamental theory of inflation applies equally to both

Only one? I would pull all of them in there. (Just kidding - I'm not homicidal. :-))

Well it's a huge chamber !

Using it for that purpose would, by the way, not to gas people but to de-gas people ... a very cruel idea indeed

[Frank V]

Posted by Operator (here)

Posted by Aragorn (here)

Posted by sigma6 (here)
cool idea, spending a million bucks to play with physics... Now if were were Nazis the next experiment would be the effect of a complete vacuum on a human being ... ok, we could put a Rothschild Banker and a world leader in there and see if the fundamental theory of inflation applies equally to both

Only one? I would pull all of them in there. (Just kidding - I'm not homicidal. :-))

Well it's a huge chamber !

Using it for that purpose would, by the way, not to gas people but to de-gas people ... a very cruel idea indeed

Well, I have it on good authority that world leaders tend to be full of hot air, so we'd be doing them a favor by ridding them of their constipation.

[Hervé]

Psssstttt...

[kritter]

At the conclusion of the first video, the statement is made that Einstein thought the feathers and ball are not falling, they are actually standing still. The background is what gives us the illusion of them falling. Can anyone expound on this?

[Frank V]

Posted by kritter (here)
At the conclusion of the first video, the statement is made that Einstein thought the feathers and ball are not falling, they are actually standing still. The background is what gives us the illusion of them falling. Can anyone expound on this?

Einstein postulated that gravity is not a force but the result of a curvature of spacetime, found around all objects with mass.

[Hervé]

The Einstein quote is only there to point to a source of misconceptions having to do with "Reference Systems"

The walls of that tower are fixed to an Earth frame of reference hence the apparency of feathers and ball sliding along that wall toward Earth.

However, were that wall independent from both ball/feathers and Earth and one could detect the imperceptible motion of both sets of objects toward each other (infinitesimal for Earth) as pointed out by araucaria in an above post.

What's undeniable is that there is motion occurring

[Operator]

Posted by araucaria (here)
The feather and the ball drop because gravity has not been offset as it would be in space; only air resistance has been removed. As I understand it, they fall at the same rate because their difference in mass is negligible with respect to the earth’s. If that ball was hugely dense, you would expect the floor to rise and the earth to meet it halfway.

Agreed ... but meeting halfway is then caused as a result of the total system. Earth's gravity exerts force on the ball
accelerating it toward earth and the ball exerts force on earth accelerating it toward the ball.

The component of earth's gravitation still causes the ball to accelerate with 10m/s2 toward earth. I've read somewhere
(can't remember where so, sorry no reference) that it is under scientific dispute that gravity is (completely?) related to mass.
Somehow electricity, magnetism and gravity seem to be related.

[Frank V]

Posted by Operator (here)
The component of earth's gravitation still causes the ball to accelerate with 10m/s2 toward earth.

Minor nitpick, but it's 9.8 m/s².

[Red Skywalker]

Nice big demo. The difference in fallingspeed under earthly conditions and space conditions is AIR. Remove the air and all objects are now equal because the lack of windresistance. Nothing special, nothing new.

But try this experiment with two magnets with the northpoles or southpoles bound together. Drop this magnetbundle and the bowlingball under spaceconditions. I heard the speed is then NOT the same! Also try it with a spinning magnet. Then too the fallingspeeds under spaceconditions will not be the same!

Could not find in short time references for these magnetexperiments. Heard a long time ago of them. Anybody else?