Hi David, since the list appears to be slow today, I'll add my two cents
in this discussion about what your feelings exactly are, as concerned
gravitation.
> Question: Supposing the ground you are standing on suddenly gives way,
> and you fall a long way (like Alice). Now that you are falling, and
> there is no longer any force on your feet (or buttocks), has gravity
> ceased to exist?
> David Lind responds:
> Hmmmm....seems like a trick question. In the above, are we to discount
> the sensation of falling? The feeling our body moving? The sensation
> of falling is just as indicative of the "force" as the pressure on the
> buttocks/feet/etc.
It is a trick question, because you never said that if you don't feel the
force, it isn't there; you just said that it is possible (perhaps limited
to certain circumstances) to feel it. Nevertheless, you may fall without
having the sensation to fall. You are possibly falling towards the centre
of the galaxy right now, and I don't think you feel it.
> Now if you had said we were in the space shuttle and there was no
> longer any force on our feet... :o)
Even on a space shuttle, gravitation is always pulling you towards Earth,
towards the Sun, towards the black hole of Cygnus, and even towards your
packaged astronaut meal. Gravitation is pulling every cell of your body
towards the baricenter of your body. This is in accord with Newton's law
(and subsequent modifications) and with the concept of gravitation. And
of course, a very small part of it can actually be experienced.
Perhaps you and Glenn were just meaning we feel "weight" (our own weight
as well as that of objects). I unconditionally agree to this. Weight was
also definitely around a long time before Newton.
(My previous post has more content, or so I guess).
Andrea
-- Andrea Sosio mailto: Andrea.Sosio@italtel.itMOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/ MD Queries - horse@wasted.demon.nl
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