What would happen if there was abruptly zero gravity on earth for 10 seconds?

Question

Will everything be destroyed? What abouth things without accelereation? Will they resist? I'm interested in what would happen with zero gravity within 10 seconds. Thank you for your help!

Answer 1

Here is the thing to remember: Even things that are standing still are traveling about 1000 miles per hour because of the earths rotation. Gravity is what keeps everything from accelerating off the planet. Think about when you are in a car and take a turn to fast you are pressed against the door. Imagine the car is the earth and gravity is the door. If gravity ceases you fly out because friction alone is not strong enought to hold you. So essentially any object moves in a continuous straight path at roughly 1000 miles per hour until it encounters another object. This is the most obvious change that would be noticed. Someone who is extra ordinarily calm in crisis and observant may also notice time runs a little faster, distance grow a little farther, colors may change shade or hue. These are do to the fact that gravity bends space and time, so cancel gravity and things "straighten out".

Answer 2

If suddenly there was no gravity then everything not tied down would start “floating” upward. The direction of traveled would depend where on the planet you were. And by “floating” I really mean speeding up faster and faster in the direction perpendicular to the axis of the earth. The acceleration in fact would not be that great and I estimate that everything would get about 7 meters or 20 feet up in 10 seconds. Not much of the atmosphere would get away, but there would be massive tidal waves all over the earth when the oceans came crashing back down. I would suspect massive earthquakes as well. Would the crust of the earth lift up several feet ? I don't know.

Answer 3

Just thinking out loud. Well, we are traveling through space as a solar system, but probably at a pretty constant velocity. We are circling the sun, so what is the effect of the centripetal force due to that? Probably pretty small due to the fact that we don't weigh considerably more when we are facing the sun as opposed to 180 degrees away. Finally, we are revolving like a top. So, I guess the force would throw us off the earth. Maybe someone should answer how high a 100 kg would go in 10 seconds, if gravity were to stop acting for that long. I hope no one hits the switch anytime soon. I'm ready for bed and I don't want to have to go looking for it after I land!

Answer 4

Assuming the world were still spinning:

Calculate centrifugal force:

mv^2/ r = m (omega^2) r

plug in mass and radius of earth, omega = 2 pi per day.

You could figure out how far everything would fly into the air if centrifugal force were given free reign for 10 seconds. It wouldn't be too much, but enough to be very disturbing.

What would really be bad is if you jumped up just before the gravity turnoff. Your velocity would continue unchecked for 10 seconds and you might fly quite a way into the air.

Answer 5

What Would Happen If We Had No Gravity

Answer 6

if no one moved, than nothing would happen but if any sort of pushing or any force was applied, it would go on forever well, without resistance for those 10 seconds and then anyone who did push would suddently just go back under the effect of gravity

Answer 7

You would fly into the air and fall to your death when gravity came back on. The atmosphere would start to escape and the ocean would be airborne also.