Microgravity

[dburkhead]

Yeah spas, I got a bit of a headache from what dburkhead said...But I'll just take some Tylenol.

dburk, as physics-ignorant as I am, that actually made a bit of sense, but I still have a question that quite possibly could have been answered in your response, but I'm too dumb to realize...

Say we are between two large bodies of mass like the earth and the moon.

There is a point between the two where the gravitational pulls are equal.

Would that be zero gravity?



What would it feel like to poop there? (OK, I don't really care about this answer, but ATM got me thinking a bit.)

There is a spot where the gravity of the Earth and Moon exactly cancel each other. However, that spot does not also cancel the gravity of the Sun, that of Venus, Mark, Jupiter, and the little purple ooze slithering across the surface of the 14th moon of Iota Reticluli 7.

It's not just the Earth and Moon. It's everything.

 

[pudly]

It's not just the Earth and Moon. It's everything.

Well, then that brings up the theoretical "center of everything"...

 

[jeremy]

You guys made my head hurt last night. Thank God for Bourbon!

 

[dburkhead]

Well, then that brings up the theoretical "center of everything"...

According to theory, there isn't one, or put another way, everywhere is the center.

The mistake people make about the "big bang" is thinking that it was an explosion at a point in space, that, somewhere in the Universe there's a "place" at which the Universe happened. That point would be the "center" of the Universe. However, the actuality (per theory again) is that not just all the mass-energy to make up the Universe was at that point, but all the "everywhere's" were compacted there. The location of the chair I'm sitting on, the center of the sun, and the location of that quasar 13 billion light years away were all right there at the big bang.

The balloon analogy sometimes works. Think of points on the surface of a balloon. Think only of the surface (as if you were a two-dimensional being on that surface and had no way to experience 3D. As the balloon expands, every point is moving away from every other point (just like we see in 3D in the Universe) but there is no actual "center" to it (within the surface--the "center" is the 3D center of the balloon, but that's not part of the surface, and thus is not part of the 2D "universe" that is the surface of the balloon). Now run that backward to a balloon that shrinks down to a single point. That's the start of the Big Bang, everything, every point in what we call "Space" today (the surface of that balloon in the analogy) is right there. Not only does the "stuff" explode outward but the space, the locations of the "stuff" explodes outward with it.

I don't know if that helps. I had to consider it for some time when I was introduced to the subject before I "got" it. That's the approach that made it "click" for me.

 

[Scutter01]

Now what about the Thetans?

 

[Zero_G]

Simulating zero g

I'm not an astronaut, but I do work with astronauts and have spent some time in microgravity through parabolic flights on NASA KC-139, C-9, and Zero G Corp's 727.
There's already been a great post on the physics of microgravity. The way NASA simulates microgravity conditions for crew training and for some experimental purposes is by putting a large plane in a 45 degree dive. This give the occupants approximately 30 seconds of zero g. After the plane has dropped about 10,000 feet, they pull up at 1.8 g. For most research flights, they run 40 parabolas with the last couple simulating lunar and martian gravity.
If you want to try one of these flights and have a spare $5K, check out Zero G - The Weightless Experience

Keith

 

[dburkhead]

Now what about the Thetans?

What? They're seven dimensional beings so the rules don't apply to them. Duh.

 

[ATM]

Zero_G, glad you joined us. The simulation flights sound very cool but 30 seconds is not much time to poop. I might save up my money though because now I am interested in taking a 1.8g "power dump."

 

[Scutter01]

The simulation flights sound very cool but 30 seconds is not much time to poop.

Maybe you're doing it wrong.

 

[ATM]

The Army trained me but that was long ago. Perhaps I've gotten lazy.

 

[smokingman]

http://www.hfml.ru.nl/levitation-movies.htm
Zero gravity
Nijmegen High Field Magnet Laboratory in Holland