![]() You would appear to float around like someone in a “ vomit-comet” airplane flight or an astronaut in the International Space Station. If gravity disappeared, you could push off of the floor and float away, never returning to the floor unless you found a ceiling to push off of again. Gravity pulls you down, and the floor pushes up on your feet. When standing still, you actually experience the force we call gravity when you feel the Earth pull us toward its center. Examples are liquid rocket propellants in spacecraft or water in life support systems in human spacecraft. I am a researcher in aerospace engineering and am interested in how to control and use liquids and gases in spaceflight. But it is possible, and people frequently choose to do this for recreation or for research in an airplane that is flying in the atmosphere, not out in space. People feeling weightlessness without being in spaceflight might seem like a contradiction. The feeling is like the brief sensation on some roller coasters or off of a diving board, but for close to half a minute and without the air rushing past you – it’s fun! Each time I still enjoy the feeling of floating free, the ability to fly across the cabin from just one gentle push on the wall, just like astronauts in the International Space Station, and the novelty of rotating your body in whatever direction you choose. I have flown many times in zero-gravity airplane flights. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to the zero-gravity airplanes or vomit comet, why does stuff behave like there is no gravity when it is just falling? – Austin B., 11, Scranton, Pennsylvania This means that the high tide bulges are never directly lined up with the Moon, but a little ahead of it.Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. Because the Moon is orbiting in the same direction as the Earth rotates, it takes extra time for any point on our planet to rotate and reach exactly below the Moon. Earth’s tidal bulges don’t line up exactly with the Moon’s position. ![]() From our view on Earth, these tides coincide with certain lunar phases since they occur when the Moon reaches specific positions in its orbit. When the Sun is at a right angle to the Moon, moderate tides, called neap tides, result. Twice a month, when the Earth, Sun, and Moon line up, their gravitational power combines to make exceptionally high tides, called spring tides, as well as very low tides where the water has been displaced.The timing and heights of the tide near you will be affected by those additional elements. Of course, in reality the Earth isn’t a smooth ball, so tides are also affected by the presence of continents, the shape of the Earth, the depth of the ocean in different locations, and more. Our observer sees the tides rise when passing through the bulges, and fall when passing through the low points. Rising and ebbing tides happen as Earth’s landmasses rotate through the tidal bulges created by the Moon’s gravitational pull.The Moon’s gravitational pull on Earth, combined with other, tangential forces, causes Earth’s water to be redistributed, ultimately creating bulges of water on the side closest to the Moon and the side farthest from the Moon.The low points are where low tides occur. On Earth, the Moon’s gravitational pull causes the oceans to bulge out on both the side closest to the Moon and the side farthest from the Moon. The Moon and Earth exert a gravitational pull on each other.See Tides article where these animations are used. These animations help to explain the science behind how the Moon affects the tides on Earth.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |