Tue, 21 Nov 2006
No Escaping Gravity
I'm going to take a break from the stuff I normally post and turn to another subject: stuff that people believe that isn't actually so. The first topic: there's no gravity in outer space, because otherwise, why would astronauts float around in the Space Shuttle. Actually, there is gravity in outer space, it's what keeps the Space Shuttle and everything else that orbits the Earth in orbit. The reason why astronauts float around in orbit is that gravity pulls the Space Shuttle and astronauts with equal force. If you go sky diving and let go of a pen, the pen will appear to float along side you. This is because it's falling at the same speed that you are. The same thing is happening in orbit: the astronauts and the Space Shuttle are "falling" towards the Earth. Only they're so high up and going so fast that they miss the edge of the Earth and continue "falling" all the way around it. That's what being in orbit actually is. Even if you're on the surface of the Moon you're in Earth's gravitational field, otherwise the Moon wouldn't orbit the Earth. In the same way on the surface of the Earth we're in the gravitational field of the Sun. So there's no escaping gravity.
