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From: jeh@ritcv.UUCP (Jim Heliotis)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: 2010 mistakes/non-mistakes
Message-ID: <1457@ritcv.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Jan-85 11:28:37 EST
Article-I.D.: ritcv.1457
Posted: Thu Jan  3 11:28:37 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 4-Jan-85 05:11:16 EST
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Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
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> > Mark Callow mentioned that there is a difference between
> > 'zero gravity' and 'free fall'.  I give up.  What is it?
> 
> Zero g == zero gravities == no acceleration == free fall
> 
> "Zero gravity" is meaningless, because gravity obeys the inverse-square law,
> and is not blocked by anything.  Hence, everywhere in the universe there is
> some gravitational influence.

What does this mean!?

	"g" = The force you feel on the surface of the earth (thus you feel
		> 1 g when taking off in a rocket).  This means that 0 g
		means you feel no "force" pulling on you.

	Free fall is just one way to feel 0 g, and it certainly does not mean
		no acceleration, it means you are accelerating unhindered by
		by any source of friction/damping.  The other way to feel
		(close to) 0 g is to be 'far' away from any other mass.  Another
		way might be near masses where the vector sum of their gravi-
		tational forces equals 0, but even this is only approximate,
		since everyone has finite volume, and the equilibrium point is
		just a single point, or perhaps a line or plane.