this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
227 points (90.1% liked)

Science Memes

11437 readers
2460 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
(page 2) 32 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 111 points 7 months ago (15 children)

This is fascinating! Both of them accelerate toward the earth at the same rate, but because of the bowling ball's greater mass, the EARTH accelerates faster toward the bowling ball than it does toward the feather, so it's imperceptibly faster XD

load more comments (15 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (2 children)

There's a video of astronauts doing the heavy thing vs feather in vacuum experiment. I think it was a hammer rather than a bowling ball tho.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Since we are in avaccum

That's where you're wrong kiddo

[–] [email protected] 245 points 7 months ago (5 children)

For anyone wondering it's because the bowling ball slightly pulls the earth faster toward itself. This amount is too small to possibly measure. But imagine if the bowling ball were the size of another Earth and it's easier to see why it happens.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

When you drop them at the same time, it doesn't matter though.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

But being more massive means that due to inertia the ball will take just a tiny little wee bit longer to start moving no? So they end up falling at the same time.

Also, are these Newtonian mechanics? How do they compare to relativity at the "bowling ball and feather" scale?

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. It's been a while since I read anything physics-related.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

The above is just referring to the fact that the standard "feather vs. bowling ball" question assumes the earth/moon/ground is immovable. In that case, Newton says they fall the same.

The fact that the ground is not immovable is what's being referenced


in this picture, things don't "fall," they are each accelerated towards each other.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The acceleration from gravity would be the same no matter the object mass (~9.8m/s²).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Oh yes! I omitted that part, but what I meant to say is that mass and inertia balance each other, so that in the end the acceleration from gravity ends up the same for any object.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 63 points 7 months ago

Thanks for the non-jargon version

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

More like failing

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Does the bowling ball ever so slightly increase the gravitational constant because of it's greater mass? Is that what the right guy is getting at?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

No. F=GMm/d2. The mass of the earth doesn’t change so g=GM/d2 will not change

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Ah but the earth doesn't just attract the ball or feather. The bowling ball attracts the earth as well, and since it has more mass, it will pull the earth towards it faster than the feather.

But if you drop them at the same time, that's moot.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (7 children)

So why does the bowling ball fall faster in a vacuum? Does it appear faster locally because the heavier object makes local time slower than the lighter object compared to a distant observer? I'm trying to understand what the meme is getting at.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

The bowling ball also pulls the earth towards itself. This amount is imperceptibly small but still there

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

That's the neat thing: it doesn't

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I’m trying to understand as well.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 39 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The gravitational constant G, no, the mutual gravitational force between the earth and the ball approximated as g, yes.

Edit: Since this is a little pedantic, G is used to calculate g.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

But how would that make the bowling ball fall faster? F = G × m₁ × m₂ / r² and F = m₁ × a ⇒ a = F / m = G × m₂ / r², where m₁ is the mass of the ball and m₂ the mass of the planet. So the gravitational acceleration of a bowling ball is independent of its mass (assuming the planet has way more mass than a bowling ball).

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I guess the bowling ball attracts the Earth towards it, shortening the distance so it hits the ground faster

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (3 children)

It's not even because it's heavier, it's because it's way more dense.

[–] [email protected] 60 points 7 months ago (2 children)

It's not density, it's mass. A mass of 1kg compressed to the density of the Sun's core would pull the Earth with just as much force as a 1kg ball of styrofoam.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago (3 children)

And is the Sun was replaced with a black hole of the same mass, the Earth would just keep on rotating around it without issues, if slightly frozen

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Just to add some formality to this, the original commenter might want to look up the shell theorem for classical mechanics and Birkhoff's theorem for general relativity.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

The guy on the right, if he be so wise in the ways of science, should be using the word "massive" instead of "heavier".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Heavy is a subjective term based on the force of gravity. You are heavier if we weigh you on the earth compared to if you are weighed on the moon.

Your mass in those two examples is unchanged. The amount of mass you have is finite and not subjective like weight.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›