If a space ship was traveling at a near zero relative speed and suddenly accelerated to a great speed, wouldn't their inertia combined with the vessel's rapid acceleration turn them into quivering piles of jelly?
Star Trek has people going from impulse speed to 9 times the speed of light inside of a second! OK OK, they have some wonder device called inertial dampeners, but if they didn't... wouldn't they all become instant stains on the backs of their chairs???
Put simply, can you have 'G-Force' via acceleration in zero gravity?
I believe Albert Einstein said gravity is a form of acceleration, but not sure if/ how that applies due to lack of formal education.... PLEASE HELP!
2006-11-29 06:31:33 · 4 answers · asked by stillwaitingtobeimpressed 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
force = mass times acceleration. So there would be a tremendous force exerted on them. On earth we sometimes mention force in units of G force:
F = g*Gforce or, Gforce = F/g
On earth g = 9.8 m/sec^2. However if in space, g = 0, then you are dividing by zero. In space, they would be experiencing infinite Gs.
2006-11-29 07:03:12 · answer #1 · answered by Andy M 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
G Force is a force experienced by something with mass, when subjected to acceleration. It has the same affect whether it happens here on Eart, or up in space in a weightless environment.
In other words, if you were in a spaceship (without "inertial dampeners"), you most deffinitely would be turned into a stain on the back of your chair, if you suddenly jumped to a high speed.
2006-11-29 06:50:40 · answer #2 · answered by Xander 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Rapid acceleration (we call it deceleration just to say it's slowing down) would occur if you drove into a wall at 100 mph or fell 20 stories and hit the pavement. Deceleration and acceleration involve the same magnitude of forces. Think of the affects of that and now go from 0 to a few hundred thousand miles per second in little time and ponder the results.
2006-11-29 06:37:45 · answer #3 · answered by Gene 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the important factor to remember when considering this question is: Mass gives acceleration and velocity NOT weight .. therefore zero gravity or not the MASS of an object is constant with all its effects .. watch an astronaut moving an object in space and you can tell that although it is weightless it still has mass and thus inertia/velocity compounds e.g.: a one tonne object is weightless but still has a MASS of one tonne in zero gravity
2006-11-29 06:41:39 · answer #4 · answered by The old man 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋