If you could climb a ladder to a sattellite in geostationary orbit, when would you become weightless??

Answer 1

Probably when you fell off the ladder. No seriously, it is a gradual process, isn't it? The higher you go, the lesser gravitational pull you will feel. So it is not a definite altitude. Once above the troposphere (I think) you will start to lose weight - great way to diet!

Answer 2

Two observations before I answer which might clear up misconceptions many people have. First, you would not suddenly become weightless at some point. It would be a gradual process. Second, and this misconception is almost universal, the people in the satellite are not weightless because of lack of gravity. They are weightless because they are in free fall. Imagine you were in a falling elevator. Imagine it was in an infinitely tall building so you wouldn't have to worry about hitting the ground. Remember that all objects regardless of size or mass, fall at the same rate. While you are in free fall condition in the elevator, if you take a fountain pen from your pocket, hold it in front of you and release it, it will seem to float in the same place. Note. This is not because there is no gravity. If there were no gravity you and the pen wouldn't be falling. It's because you and the pen are both in a free fall condition. Back to your original question. The satellite (or space shuttle or space station) reaches this free fall status only if its forward speed is such that it falls at the exact rate as the curvature of the earth causes the earth to drop out from under it. Therefore, though its continually falling it remains the same distance above the earth. This speed is called orbital velocity and depends upon the height of the satellite above the earth. The answer to your question is that if you were to climb the ladder you would not attain complete weightlessness until you reached this orbital velocity. Since the satellite is in orbit it's obvious that it has already achieved this velocity so you will not be fully weightless until you reach the satellite. Whew. I do that in class every year but I didn't realize how hard it would be with no chalkboard, diagrams etc. Hope that helped.

Answer 3

First, we'll assume you managed to find an infinitely ridgid ladder that extends outward 42240 kilometers from the center of the earth and that you can place perpendicular to the earth's surface any where you like.

It depends on where you put the ladder. If you put it at one of the poles, you would never become weightless. The earth's gravitational pull still exists, even at geostationary distance. Your mass would exert less force on the ladder due to the increase in distance from the center of the earth, but you would still feel "weight". Just not as much "weight" as you would feel standing on the bottom rung of the ladder rather than the top rung.

Now, if you stepped off the ladder, you would immediately begin a free fall back to earth and would experience "free fall", which is exactly what people call weightlessness. An orbit is simply a free fall that misses the earth itself. This "weightless" free fall would last until you encountered the earth's atmosphere. At that point the atmosphere would begin to slow you down, so you would feel "weight" as you begin to decelerate. Unfortunately, at that point your velocity would be far too high and shortly after beginning to feel "weight" as you pressed against the atmosphere, you would also feel "heat" as you began to burn up. At that point, it would be a race to see if you reached terminal velocity prior to completely burning away. If so, what remained of you could then continue falling and actually impact the ground where all of your remaining weight would return, or at least it would return for the mass that had not actually burned away.

Note, that if you wish to demonstrate this at home, you can do it with a simple step ladder. You will still feel "weight" as you climb the ladder because it is attached to, and supported by the ground beneath it, just as your ladder to geosyncronous orbit would be supported, allowing you to feel "weight". It is only when you are NOT supported by a structure on the ground that you are in "free fall" and experience no "back pressure" or "weight" from the mass of the earth beneath you. However, if you step off of the stepladder in your house, you will experience full "weightlessness" during the .4 seconds it will take you to reach the floor.

On the other hand, if you put your ladder on the equator, you will eventually reach a point where the centrifugal force outward will match the force of gravity downward and you will actually be "weightless". Not only that, but since the top of the ladder will be moving at exactly the speed required to remain in a circular orbit at that altitude, if you step off the ladder you will remain right along side the ladder at the same position, in "free fall" around the earth alongside the ladder's top rung. Note that the point at which you "are actually weightless" on the ladder is at geosynchronous altitude of 35862 kilometers above the equator.

As to when it feels weightless to YOU, that depends on how little weight you actually have to feel before you don't notice it.

If you put the ladder anyplace other than the equator or the poles, you're going to get a centrifugal force vector that tries to pull you away from the ladder as it rotates around the earth's pole. Make certain you position the ladder so that you're on the side nearest the pole while you are climbing it.

Answer 4

When you reach the satellite. At that time, you are also in geostationary orbit. The acceleration of gravity is then exactly enough to change your velocity so it follows the circular orbit.

Technically, you're not really weightless, since you are still experiencing the gravitational attraction of earth. But I think the only way you could tell the difference between that and true weightlessness is to carry a gyrocompass, which would maintain a fixed inertial orientation, or to watch your surroundings.

Answer 5

I believe the answer is a "technical" trick question. You never
become weightless. The gravitational force of the earth
always acts on you. There is never a point in the climb up the ladder where the force acting on you is zero.

If you are very far away from any type of star or planet, or at a place where the sum of the gravitational foces is zero, then you are truly weightless.

The effects on you in relation to falling to the earth, free fall, etc are well described by JimWV above. But these are EFFECTS of
the Earth's gravitational force.

Answer 6

You would be out of breath before you got there.

Answer 7

yes