When will you feel the gravity?

Answer 1

When it makes you accelerate. Paradoxically, you aren't really feeling the gravity per se, but rather the effect of your own inertia: the tendency of your own mass to want to resist the force of gravity; to remain in its current state of motion.

For example, if you're falling out of a tree, you probably won't feel the gravity until one of your bones is cracked by its own desire to keep accelerating through the ground it just hit.

If you're falling out of an airplane, you won't feel the gravity until you feel air striking you, flapping your clothes and flattening your skin as air decelerates or "negatively accelerates" you to a constant "terminal velocity".... Assuming you didn't forget your parachute, you'll feel it again when the chute opens and you further decelerate, and then you'll feel it once more when you come to full stop on the ground.

When you feel your weight pressing down into the chair you're sitting in, you're really feeling your own acceleration towards the centre of the Earth resisted by repulsive nuclear and electromagnetic forces in your own body and the matter of your chair, the floor, the ground etc that is pushing back.

Finally if you fall towards a black hole you will feel the parts of you that are closest to the singularity trying to accelerate faster than the part of you that is farthest away: It will feel like being on some kind of rack in some medieval dungeon, except that the forces will be acting not just between your wrists and ankles, but more between each and every subatomic particle of your body.

In relativistic terms, gravity is not a force, but rather a local curvature in the spacetime continuum. The inertial paths of moving bodies near massive objects are not straight lines in euclidean space, but rather curved lines in einsteinan spacetime. So I suppose you could also say that we "feel the gravity" as the clock ticks out our lifetimes.

It's complicated.

Answer 2

Dude, what gravity are you talking about? There is so much gravity around that it is taken for granted. You can't actually "feel" gravity, but are experiencing its effects all the time by being bound to the ground of this planet. Gravity is a weak force (Atomic bonding, or nuclear force is the strong force) that acts on objects across long distances. All objects have gravity that is proportional to the mass of the object. The more mass, the stronger the gravity. As you move farther away from the object, the gravity becomes weaker. It approaches zero, but never actually gets to zero. (Think of dividing 1 in half over and over: 1 - 1/2 - 1/4 - 1/8 - 1/16... the number just keeps getting smaller but never becomes zero) All objects in the whole galaxy are bound by gravity and all individual objects gravity affect all other objects to some degree, ever so slightly.

Unless you are talking about escaping gravity, or are out in space weightless and about to enter the atmosphere, in which case you should have worded your question differently because I just spent all this time typing that stuff above I am getting tired of typing. Perhaps you should make friends with an astronaut and talk to that person about gravity.

Answer 3

Gravity, like all fundamental forces is felt everywhere at all times in the Universe, even if it is a very small force. A change in a gravitational speed can only propagate at the speed of light. So, to summerise, you will always be feeling the gravity, but you will feel a change in gravity after a time equal to the distance between you and the other object, divided by the speed of light.

Answer 4

If you have mass or energy and if there is anything else with mass or energy and it is "observable" (that is, it is in your light cone) then you will "feel" it. But the force of gravity diminishes with the inverse square law.

As John A Wheeler states : "Mass tells space-time how to warp; space-time tells matter how to move", if you're not moving in a straight line, then there is mass nearby.

Actually even simpler: If you can feel an acceleration then there is mass nearby. Right now you're feeling an acceleration of 9m/s^2 (well you would if the floor wasn't in the way) so you're feeling gravity.

Answer 5

You are so used to being in a gravitational field that you don't notice it.
If you ride a roller coaster the change in gravity is what gives you the thrill.you notice it then because it's action on you has changed.

Answer 6

After swimming......it happens as you get out of the pool. This is do to the fact the water makes you feel lighter and is why Dr. recommend excising in your pool. Less impact.

Answer 7

the gravity is holding you back right now. hmmm....maybe what you mean is that you cant really sense it

specify your question!

Answer 8

When the hot soup lands in your lap.

Answer 9

Usually after I eat too much.