this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2024
255 points (86.3% liked)

Science Memes

11130 readers
2501 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
 

Tap for spoilerThe bowling ball isn’t falling to the earth faster. The higher perceived acceleration is due to the earth falling toward the bowling ball.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You said the two objects accelerate at the same rate, but then in the PS you said the feather gets accelerated faster. What do you mean?

Both accelerate at the same rate relative to the earth (the bowling ball accelerates slightly slower relative to some outside point, but it accelerates the earth slightly more towards it, resulting in the same relative acceleration to the earth as the feather)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Newton's second law works in inertial frames. The acceleration of both objects would be the same in the inertial frame. But in the inertial frame, the earth would accelerate faster toward the object if the object was a bowling ball than if it was a feather.