Bravo, wcg! That's much clearer (and much more detailed) than anything I could've said to this.
To amplify one line -- gravity as we feel it *is* an acceleration caused by the force, commonly called the gravitational force,:
We don't actually feel gravity at all, but the effects of resistance to it. That's why the "zero-g" experienced by astronauts in orbit is also called "free fall", and part of their training for it is in aircraft that for brief periods (a minute or less?) move just as they would if they were falling freely. That's why we feel heavier as an elevator starts upward or stops downward, and lighter in the opposite cases: It's accelerating against or with the force of Earth's gravity, forcing us upward or letting us fall (partially) with it.
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of astronauts and elevators
Date: 2011-05-24 07:11 pm (UTC)To amplify one line -- gravity as we feel it *is* an acceleration caused by the force, commonly called the gravitational force,:
We don't actually feel gravity at all, but the effects of resistance to it. That's why the "zero-g" experienced by astronauts in orbit is also called "free fall", and part of their training for it is in aircraft that for brief periods (a minute or less?) move just as they would if they were falling freely. That's why we feel heavier as an elevator starts upward or stops downward, and lighter in the opposite cases: It's accelerating against or with the force of Earth's gravity, forcing us upward or letting us fall (partially) with it.