this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I don't understand. What's a uniform gravitational field and why does being inside one feels like standing in an accelerating elevator?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This is a joke about Einstein's form of the Equivalence Principle:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalence_principle

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Thanks. Let's see:

The weak equivalence principle, also known as the universality of free fall or the Galilean equivalence principle can be stated in many ways.

And

"... in a uniform gravitational field all objects, regardless of their composition, fall with precisely the same acceleration." "The weak equivalence principle implicitly assumes that the falling objects are bound by non-gravitational forces."[11]

I'm just beginning to understand. I'm not there yet.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

If you are standing in a closed box, there is no experiment you can make that tells you whether that box is standing on earth, or is on a rocket in space accelerating at 9.81m/s²

This has a bunch of interesting implications about the nature of spacetime