Comment on your mom falls significantly faster than g
Shard@lemmy.world 1 month ago
So will the bowling ball gravitationally attract the earth to itself there by reach the earth an infinitesimally small amount?
Comment on your mom falls significantly faster than g
Shard@lemmy.world 1 month ago
So will the bowling ball gravitationally attract the earth to itself there by reach the earth an infinitesimally small amount?
BB84@mander.xyz 1 month ago
Yes, the earth accelerates toward the ball faster than it does toward the feather.
SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Wouldn’t this be equally offset by the increase in inertia from their masses?
BB84@mander.xyz 1 month ago
If your bowling ball is twice as massive, the force between it and earth will be twice as strong. But the ball’s mass will also be twice as large, so the ball’s acceleration will remain the same. This is why g=9.81m/s^2 for every object.
But the earth’s acceleration would not remain the same. The force doubles, but the mass of earth remains constant, so the acceleration of earth doubles.
Venator@lemmy.nz 1 month ago
I wonder how many frames per… picosecond you’d need to capture that on camera… And what zoom level you’d need to see it.
I think the roughness of the surface of the bowling ball would have a bigger impact on the time…
Robust_Mirror@aussie.zone 1 month ago
But if you’re dropping them at the same time right next to each other, the earth is so large they would functionally be one object and pull the earth at the same combined acceleration.