(07-28-2019 11:01 PM)cdmackay Wrote: [ -> ]floating around in the free-fall environment [note I didn't say weightless ].
But they're the same thing. Weight is what happens when something resists the force of gravity, which in freefall by definition does not happen. Now a massless environment, that would be something else.
I was taught that weight is the force on a mass due to gravity. That force is (almost) identical whether the mass is in the ISS in orbit, or on the earth's surface. By that definition it's incorrect to say weightless, although even NASA sometimes do it, although some will say apparently weightless. I've seen interviews with astronauts who stop and correct themselves when they say it
See, for example here "On orbit, the shuttle weighs 250,000 * .907 = 226,757 pounds. Notice: the weight is not zero. The shuttle is not weightless in orbit."
I agree, it depends on your definition of weight.
Worse still are those who say "they're weightless because there's no gravity"
(07-30-2019 10:49 PM)cdmackay Wrote: [ -> ]I agree, it depends on your definition of weight.
Worse still are those who say "they're weightless because there's no gravity"
An orbital body still has weight and is falling. The reason it doesn't hit Earth is because the horizontal component of its trajectory is sufficient (7.9km/sec) to make the trajectory the same as the curvature of the Earth's surface. In other words it keeps falling in an arc but the Earth's surface curves away at the same rate. (So much for flat earthers!)
Interesting that a few of these front pages also have the news of the "Chappaquiddick Incident" which permanently derailed the presidential aspirations of the Ted Kennedy, the final son left to the influential family. I had forgotten that event was nearly coterminal with the moon landing, a fortunate thing for the wayward Senator as his story was almost always pushed to the back pages.
Interesting that a few of these front pages also have the news of the "Chappaquiddick Incident" which permanently derailed the presidential aspirations of the Ted Kennedy, the final son left to the influential family. I had forgotten that event was nearly coterminal with the moon landing, a fortunate thing for the wayward Senator as his story was almost always pushed to the back pages.
Here's a helpful ad from those days (from National Lampoon)