Shouldnt things pick up speed in space?

Question

If you send an object flying through space and along it journey it's never impeded by any thing(asteroids,comets,meteors,planets, moons an objects gravity, whatever),shouldnt it pick up speed as it goes along? An object in motion stays in motion, unless acted up. well wouldnt a moving object pick up speed? Or no? Is there something I'm missing here?
And if it does pick up speed what's the rate at which it does gain speed?

Answer 1

stays in motion, doesn't accelerate.

Answer 2

It will never pick up speed, unless there is something to influence it. Here on earth, when we drop an object from a height x, that object falls at the rate of x raise t where t = time, why? because of gravitational pull. All smaller objects are pulled by gravity towards larger objects, and will either collide with or orbit around. In space as long as there are no asteroids, or other big objects such as moons, planets etc (which have magnetic poles), then the object will continue to move at the initial velocity.

Answer 3

You are missing a big part of Newton's Laws... one of which states that an object in motion remains in motion unless acted on by another force. Once speed is set in a vaccum, you must DO something to increase the speed. To add speed you must use thrust - eject something out of the object at a high rate of relative speed. The object and the thing you eject will move away form each other at a net increase in speed for the original object.

Answer 4

You're already on the right track. As you have stated in your comment, citing Newton's Law, an object stays in motion unless acted upon by a force. In order for an object to accelerate, some force such as a collision with another object, rocket engine or gravity would have to act on it. Otherwise, it would just keep travelling the way it was at a constant speed an direction.

Answer 5

In order to pick up speed that object would need to be accelerated. Since objects in motion stay in motion unless acted upon by a net force that object will continue on at that same speed until it is acted upon. You're applying the idea of gravity to space. Gravity is a type of acceleration/force which causes falling objcets to fall faster the longer they fall.

Answer 6

Newton's first law actually says that, "an object in uniform motion tends to stay in uniform motion unless acted upon by a net external force". Uniform means constant. So you would expect the object to fly through space at constant speed and not pick up speed up or slow down.

Answer 7

Nothing moves, even in space, unless some force is applied to it. Its speed is directionally proportionate to the amount of force applied. In order for something to go faster, it has to have more force applied to it.

This can be observed on earth by dropping a marble and a bowling ball at the same time. They fall at the same rate because, while the bowling ball is bigger and heavier, gravitational force is applied equally to all of its mass.

What I would like to see is two very different size and weight objects like a human and the space shuttle floating in space outside of the earth and sun's gravitational pull. Since they both weigh the same, 0, theoretically, if the human pushed the space shuttle, the space shuttle and human would go in opposite directions at the same rate of speed.

Answer 8

Technically, it would maintain a constant velocity, if there were no gravity in space. The law of inertia states that an object in motion relative to another object will tend to stay in motion at a constant rate reletaive to that object, barring the appliaction of outside forces.

However, gravity is actually everywhere, (there is no such thing as zero gravity, only places where multiple gravities cancel out). The force of gravity, however, declines rapidly (the inverse square law) as distances increase, so the forces become harder to detect and take longer to have a noticeable effect on a moving object.

Answer 9

You are correct that an object in Motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force but the motion will be static as in no increase nor decrease in speed. That being said Just being in outer space would not be enough to allow an object to stay in motion as even the gas and dust will exert an outside force in the form of friction.

Answer 10

Think about a bullet shot from a gun barrel. The speed at which it leaves the barrel (muzzle velocity) is dependent on the amount of gun powder in the shell and the weight of the bullet.
As soon as it leaves the barrel it encounters wind resistance and begins to slow down.
If you shot a bullet in space, the speed at which it would travel is the same as that on the earth. But sith no air, it would not slow down.
Now, what force would make it speed up?
If I dropped a bullet from a tower, it would continue to speed up as it fell to the ground because the force of gravity is pulling it.

If I took a tennis ball in space and gently pushed it, it would continue to float away from me without speeding up.

I wish I had memorized Newton's laws of physics. One of them talks about an object that will continue in its current state unless acted upon by a force outside of itself. (gravity, wind resistance etc.)

So, the only was something will speed up is if it were pulled by the gravity of a larger body.
:-)

Answer 11

It wouldn't pick up speed aside from the speed it was thrown. If there isn't any gravity like sling shots around a planet or moon then there's nothing to make it go faster.