The other day I was watching mysteries of the earth on Netflix. It posed some very interesting topics that my brain took to another level and now I'd like some answers. I knew most of the shows topics like how rain is formed and how it needs a solid particle to latch on to before it falls to the earth. But there were other things I had no clue on and it got me to thinking.
An astrophysicist by the name of Michio Kaku was talking about gravity on the earth and if it suddenly disappeared, we would all fly off into space at a thousand miles per hour in an instant and then of course die. After I heard that I was puzzled, and questions started to form in my mind.
If we flew off the earth at a thousand miles per hour does that mean we are being held down at over a thousand miles per hour by gravity? Gravity is measured at approximately 9.18 meters per second and if you multiply that with weight... Doesn't add up. So if this is still a truthful statement it means there is another force at work here, is it the centrifugal force by the spin of the earth that would fling you away? Could it be because the expansion of the universe?
The Universe is always expanding and apparently it's getting faster and everything is moving apart at marginal degrees. If the force pulling you off the planet at a thousand miles per hour is in part, or all of the expansion of the universe, could we one day be overtaken by that force as the Universe continues to speed up?
Another issue I was having was with the statement that the space station wasn't without gravity, but instead was in a perpetual free fall, and the astronauts inside were falling at the same rate as the ship, which gives the illusion of not having any gravity. How can something be falling forever? Does this mean if there were no planets anywhere and there was a ship in space it would still be in a perpetual free fall? Where is it falling to?
I can't help it, my mind thinks this stuff up and I think about this stuff all night and all day, now maybe you will too.
Scott Goerz
