I only have a very rudimentary understanding of theoretical physics so tell me if this is coming out of left field, but if gravity disappeared we wouldn’t have to be worried about falling off of the planet or the planets acceleration or anything like that because we along with everything else would instantly be reduced to atomic or maybe even subatomic matter right?
I only have a very rudimentary understanding of theoretical physics so tell me if this is coming out of left field, but if gravity disappeared we wouldn’t have to be worried about falling off of the planet or the planets acceleration or anything like that because we along with everything else would instantly be reduced to atomic or maybe even subatomic matter right?
No and no. We and solids in general are held together by forces many orders of magnitude stronger than gravity.
We would have to be worried about being thrown off the planet because of rotational inertia that is currently more than compensated for by gravity that is a couple orders of magnitude higher.
We would all fly towards space due to centrifugal force, gravity is what keeps us on earth's surface. I'm inside my house, so I'd fly into the ceiling and probably die from that impact. Everyone else would fly into the air and eventually suffocate from the lack of atmosphere pressure as there wouldn't be gravity keeping it concentrated towards earth's surface.
You are going that same speed in exactly the same direction as the part of Earth nearest you. You're not going to drift apart that fast.
Rotation of Earth is the bigger problem. You will drift apart pretty fast (but not that fast) from China, England, India. And that's why I'm worried about the magma and the molten core, but then again, that's a potential source of heat for a while.
I don't claim to know all the answers, only to show that the science is complex
WOW, You are stupid.
Let's use a Hammer thrower. The Thrower is the sun and the ball at the end is the Earth The thrower spins and spins and all is fine with world, but suddenly they let go. What happens? It becomes a projectile away from the thrower. Everything continues moving in the direction it was at the instant of release. The Earth becomes a projectile away from the sun.
The Earth is also rotating, so anything on Earth would get the same treatment. Instant ejection. Your not going to drift apart that fast? Ummm, yes you are. Dip a tennis ball in water and then throw it up and spin it. What happens to the water? It's ejected in all directions, right? Atmosphere, oceans, people, cars, bugs, birds, airplanes, buildings, etc, all get ejected.
You would need to hold on somehow or you'd drift fairly quickly, but it would not be that dramatic. At the equator the earth rotates about 465m/s, and the radius of the earth is 6.37×10⁶m.
Centrifugal acceleration would be a = v^2/r = 0.034m/s, which would be your acceleration away form the earth. The force of that if you weigh 150lbs or 68kg is 0.034*68 = 2.3N = 0.52lbs. Physically it would not take hardly any strength to hold on.
You would need to hold on somehow or you'd drift fairly quickly, but it would not be that dramatic. At the equator the earth rotates about 465m/s, and the radius of the earth is 6.37×10⁶m.
Centrifugal acceleration would be a = v^2/r = 0.034m/s, which would be your acceleration away form the earth. The force of that if you weigh 150lbs or 68kg is 0.034*68 = 2.3N = 0.52lbs. Physically it would not take hardly any strength to hold on.
Centrifugal force will be small, yes, but you are forgetting the inertia of the 465 m/s at which we as well as the atmosphere is moving, which will cause us to continue moving at that great speed along the tangential direction. It is not humanly possible to hold on to something with your limbs to stay in place.
You would need to hold on somehow or you'd drift fairly quickly, but it would not be that dramatic. At the equator the earth rotates about 465m/s, and the radius of the earth is 6.37×10⁶m.
Centrifugal acceleration would be a = v^2/r = 0.034m/s, which would be your acceleration away form the earth. The force of that if you weigh 150lbs or 68kg is 0.034*68 = 2.3N = 0.52lbs. Physically it would not take hardly any strength to hold on.
Centrifugal force will be small, yes, but you are forgetting the inertia of the 465 m/s at which we as well as the atmosphere is moving, which will cause us to continue moving at that great speed along the tangential direction. It is not humanly possible to hold on to something with your limbs to stay in place.
You're wrong. Gravity stops. Not the Earth's rotation. So you're only resisting the centrifugal acceleration. The atmosphere and oceans would disappear quickly but anything anchored to the Earth like a house would stay for a long time
you forget about pressure. atmospheric pressure is generated by gravity. no gravity, no pressure. at zero bar, boiling points of liquids do funny things.
plus no partial pressure to absorb oxygen in your lungs.
so whilst every liquid surface; eyes, nose, lungs, gi tract are boiling, you arent getting any oxygen. nasty and rapid.
you forget about pressure. atmospheric pressure is generated by gravity. no gravity, no pressure. at zero bar, boiling points of liquids do funny things.
plus no partial pressure to absorb oxygen in your lungs.
so whilst every liquid surface; eyes, nose, lungs, gi tract are boiling, you arent getting any oxygen. nasty and rapid.
ok so I already went over why this is wrong. Try to keep up.
The air in the atmosphere is under pressure because the molecules are close together, bouncing off each other constantly. Simple thermodynamics, they are trapped in a certain volume.
Beyond that, it's true that under current conditions, the cause of the air being scrunched into that particular volume is its own weight under gravity. But that's not the only thing that can do that. You can also enclose the air in a rigid container, for example. That lets you have high air pressure on a jetliner or spaceship. Or a submarine.
So, to prepare for 0g Earth, you could have a spaceship ready. Sort of an Ark Ship with all the life support including air. The air inside will remain at high enough pressure to support life.
Or we could put a big iron sphere around Earth to hold the atmosphere in. It would stay compressed and high pressure, for an entirely different reason than gravity. Just to illustrate.
