Why do we experience weightlessness in space?

Answer 1

Actually, in space, say where the space shuttle goes, there's plenty of gravity from the earth, and you would NOT be weightless IF you were standing still. However, if you're in orbit or freely falling, THEN you would feel weightless.

It's only when you're falling, anywhere, say in a falling elevator, or on a freely falling roller coaster, that you're weightless. When you see the astronauts floating in the space shuttle, they're weghtless only because they are "falling" (A ship in orbit is continuously "falling"), but there is still gravity there, which you can't feel if you're falling.

Why are we weightless when we're falling? In a sense, your acceleration as you fall CANCELS out gravity completely. This was Einstein's great insight. For him, it just was logical, and it was a starting assumption.

Answer 2

As someone who has studied gravity and black holes all of my life, i Am happy to anwser this qustion.


Children, if anyone has questions about astronauts and weightlessness in space. Weightlessness is experienced when there is no gravity or minimum gravity. Gravity is the pull that does not let anyone float around. Astronauts that go into space visiting the outer space and live in space stations, experience being weightless. They feel like they are falling, but never reaching the ground. Scientists call that “free fall”. Why do they feel like they are falling? Well, here on earth when we stand on the scale, it gives us a reading. Your weight on earth is actually read by how much you squeeze the scale between you and the earth. If you take away the earth your feet have nothing to squeeze the scale against. But if there were there nothing below the scale you would fall. Hence the term “free fall”. Here on earth, our bones strain against gravity, so they are strong," "If the bones loose their strength and become soft, the person might get osteoporosis. Also, since there is a constant feeling of falling down, the brain sends signals to the fluids in your body, telling them to fall as well. So an5 astronaut gets sinus, which might trigger vomiting." Well that is a frequent misunderstanding amongst people. The truth is, they orbit the earth because of earth’s gravity. The space shuttles are falling towards the earth at the correct speed and height so that the gravity doesn’t pull them down. But once the astronauts finish their experiments in space, they lower the space shuttle so that the gravity helps them return to the earth’s atmosphere."

"Astronauts conduct experiments in space to prove many things. On the MIR, Astrobiologists saw the first Earth creature being born in the weightless space – a quail chick. That proved that animals could be born in space where it is weightless. And tests have been made to see how fire would be like when it is weightless. And it turns out it looks like a semi-circle."

Hope that helps

Answer 3

Although Earth's gravity has been escaped, there's still more gravity (what do you think keeps the planets revolving around the sun?).
So the space shuttle (where we're supposed to be) is forever falling somewhere it's closest to but it's fast enough to stay on track and keep moving, so the forward movement and the falling movement come together so the passengers of the space shuttle experience weightlessness.

Answer 4

No human has ever been far enough away from earth to be free of its gravity pull. Astronauts have experienced weightlessness for the same reason you would if you stepped off a chair. They are free falling in accordance with gravitational forces (meaning, they're either in orbit around earth; or for the Apollo missions, flying some kind of parabolic curve with the same effect).

Answer 5

In the space where the gravity of earth is neutralised by the other planets we experience weightlessness.

Answer 6

Gravity or pull of the earth (or any body, like the Sun) decreases as the object (or in this case the astronaut) gets further away from the source. Hence when you reach further away a critical distance (from the earth) the pull of the earth becomes weak and so you experience weightlessness. Find out what that distance is.

Answer 7

If we are free from the gravitaional pull of any massive object , we feel to be weightless .so also if we happen to be at adistance in an area where the gravitational pull of any massive object is very weak , we feel weight less. Though we might be falling towards the object that is pulling us , we will also continue to move in the direction in which we were moving while arriving at the spot .so our movement will be in the rsultant force - that is the resultant of the two forces , the force of gravity of the object that pulls us and the force of movement in the direction of our motion while we reached particular spot . we may be revolving arond the object that pulls us .

Answer 8

Two reasons:

In orbit around Earth (or any celestial body, for that matter), a person is in a perpetual state of falling. The spacecraft in orbit is essentially falling around the planet.

Outside of orbit, a person isn't technically weightless, but the forces of gravity are small.

Answer 9

Friend,
On Earth we experience WEIGHT because of Gravitational Force of Earth.In detail this explained below briefly;

The term gravity is commonly used synonymously with gravitation, but in correct usage a definite distinction is made. Whereas gravitation is the attractive force acting to draw any bodies together, gravity indicates that force in operation between the earth and other bodies, i.e., the force acting to draw bodies toward the earth. The force tending to hold objects to the earth's surface depends not only on the earth's gravitational field but also on other factors, such as the earth's rotation. The measure of the force of gravity on a given body is the weight of that body.

In the SPACE there is NO GRAVITATIONAL FORCE.
So we don't experience any weight.

In space we feel weightlessness because the earth's gravity has less effect on us. Why do we not see the effect of the gravitational force between the various objects in a spacecraft? We see them floating around

Answer 10

To experience weight you must be attracted by a huge mass. Example : the earth.

If you are in space far from a big object, planet, star, you are not attracted and experience weightlessness