Skydiving on the Moon

How would you feel if you happened to find yourself about
2,000 feet above the surface of the Moon and falling?

Would you feel the acceleration?

--
happy days and...
starry starry nights!

Paine Ellsworth

Hi Painius You would not feel the air causing a wind effect going
past your ears,and skin. Your brain would not like the feeling as you
start to fall that nothing is holding you up. Fear would set in,and the
chances are your brain would go into shock,and you then would have
nothing to worry about. I'll add a parrachute would not help,but those
air-bags of Mars probes would. Bert

"G=EMC^2 Glazier" wrote in message...
...

Hi Painius You would not feel the air causing a wind effect going
past your ears,and skin. Your brain would not like the feeling as you
start to fall that nothing is holding you up. Fear would set in,and the
chances are your brain would go into shock,and you then would have
nothing to worry about. I'll add a parrachute would not help,but those
air-bags of Mars probes would. Bert

Answer the farquing question, Bert! g

It's pretty easy to calculate that it would take a little less
than 30 seconds to freefall to the surface of the Moon
from 2,000 feet high. (note: 2,000 feet is about 610
meters)

h = 1/6(-1/2 X 9.8t²) + 610
0 = -0.817t² + 610
t² = 610/0.817
t = 27 seconds

....with or without a parachute. g

HOWEVER...

If you happened to find yourself about 2,000 feet above
the surface of the Moon and falling, then your speed
would increase at the rate of 1.6 meters/second²...

Would you feel this acceleration?

(This is especially an important question for you, Bert,
since you seem to feel the "sameness" of gravity and
inertia. If you *can* feel the acceleration while falling,
then gravity and inertia might be the same. And, if you
cannot feel the acceleration due to the Moon's gravity?...

happy days) and...
starry starry nights!

--
Sometimes OH! my mind grips a thought so unkind
That it twists me to heights of contortion...
I'm often so glad that my mom and my dad
Didn't follow along with abortion!

Paine Ellsworth

A change in acceleration is felt in the inner ear, is it not? Which you
would have over the moon as well. Having parachuted in a less cautious
youth, you feel acceleration (and exhilaration) upon exiting a plane, then
surprising, it feels more like floating thereafter. There is no tug upward
when the chute opens, despite what it looks like on film: just a quick
negative acceleration. That part would be missing on the moon altogether, so
it just feels like floating, for most of it. 30 seconds being a pretty long
time in this case. The next sensation occurs as the land comes up fast. If
you're a newbie you stare at the ground and your brain tells you in a panic
that you are accelerating again even though nothing has really changed yet
in your status (an effect called 'ground rush'). If you're following
instructions you look at the horizon and don't get the ground rush effect.
Finally, if you're lucky, your landing strategy, air bags or whatever will
work, kicks in and you land safely. If you haven't thought that far ahead
you were probably dead on exiting the craft.

Bill C.

"Painius" wrote in message
...
How would you feel if you happened to find yourself about
2,000 feet above the surface of the Moon and falling?

Would you feel the acceleration?

--
happy days and...
starry starry nights!

Paine Ellsworth

Hi Painius True acceleration would be 1/6 slower on the moon than on
the earth. You would start your fall with a feeling of slow motion,and
like you calculated have 27 seconds to worry about the ground coming up
to you. I think coming up to you is what you would think,rather than
falling into the surface (yes?) Well you weigh 1/6 less,and its weight
times speed that gives the force of impact. At that height you are just
as dead,as on Earth. Painius here is where inertia (mass)
comes in (fits) Your mass is the same as you had on Earth. Lets say
the force hitting the moon"s surface is like being hit by a train going
100 mph There is no difference being hit by a train on earth,or a train
on the moon going at the same speed. Asminov told me
this in his book "Physics" Bert

"Bill C." wrote...
in message ...

A change in acceleration is felt in the inner ear, is it not? Which you
would have over the moon as well. Having parachuted in a less cautious
youth, you feel acceleration (and exhilaration) upon exiting a plane, then
surprising, it feels more like floating thereafter. There is no tug upward
when the chute opens, despite what it looks like on film: just a quick
negative acceleration. That part would be missing on the moon altogether, so
it just feels like floating, for most of it. 30 seconds being a pretty long
time in this case. The next sensation occurs as the land comes up fast. If
you're a newbie you stare at the ground and your brain tells you in a panic
that you are accelerating again even though nothing has really changed yet
in your status (an effect called 'ground rush'). If you're following
instructions you look at the horizon and don't get the ground rush effect.
Finally, if you're lucky, your landing strategy, air bags or whatever will
work, kicks in and you land safely. If you haven't thought that far ahead
you were probably dead on exiting the craft.

Bill C.

Thanks, Bill... GREAT stuff!

Now let's do this "inner ear" thing. If i hear you right,
then when we're in a car, and we step on the gas, it's
the inner ear that's most sensitive to the change. And
if the acceleration is fast enough, we can experience
it with our entire body, correct? We are "thrown"
backward, and we can *feel* this sensation.

So THAT's what i'm talking about... feeling the "being
thrown back" feeling that we can feel when our bodies
are accelerating. Would you feel this feeling if falling
toward the surface of the Moon?

(Also, i probably don't have to say this... just a gentle
reminder that there would be *no* terminal velocity while
freefalling toward the Moon. You'd just keep on going
faster at the rate of 1.6 m/s² no matter how high up you
were when you started.)

happy days and...
starry starry nights!

--
Asimov! where have you gone?
Your written word goes on and on,
All becomes so clear to see
In Asimov's Astronomy!

Paine Ellsworth

Painius,
If you're in freefall in a pure vacuum, you feel no
acceleration whatsoever. If you freefall in Earth's atmosphere you soon
reach 'terminal velocity' of something like 120 mph due to air
resistance. A previous poster describes the sensations of skydiving very
well.
(Incidently, the flowing-space model of gravity
accurately depicts what you'll experience freefalling in vacuum. But we
won't go there.g)
oc

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"G=EMC^2 Glazier" wrote in message
...
Hi Painius True acceleration would be 1/6 slower on the moon than on
the earth. You would start your fall with a feeling of slow motion,and
like you calculated have 27 seconds to worry about the ground coming up
to you. I think coming up to you is what you would think,rather than
falling into the surface (yes?) Well you weigh 1/6 less,and its weight
times speed that gives the force of impact. At that height you are just
as dead,as on Earth. Painius here is where inertia (mass)
comes in (fits) Your mass is the same as you had on Earth. Lets say
the force hitting the moon"s surface is like being hit by a train going
100 mph There is no difference being hit by a train on earth,or a train
on the moon going at the same speed. Asminov told me
this in his book "Physics" Bert


Since you would be in free fall, I don't think there would be any sense of
acceleration at all. If you are falling while in a spacecraft, it would be
accelerating right along with you, so it would give you no clues. If you in
a spacesuit dropping toward the surface, there still would be no
sensation---other than the awful one of watching the lunar landscape rushing
toward you.

RM

"Painius" wrote in message
news:aAl6b.128279$0v4.9329249@bgtnsc04-
Now let's do this "inner ear" thing. If i hear you right,
then when we're in a car, and we step on the gas, it's
the inner ear that's most sensitive to the change. And
if the acceleration is fast enough, we can experience
it with our entire body, correct? We are "thrown"
backward, and we can *feel* this sensation.

So THAT's what i'm talking about... feeling the "being
thrown back" feeling that we can feel when our bodies
are accelerating. Would you feel this feeling if falling
toward the surface of the Moon?

I don't think so. In an accelerating car, you feel thrown back because the
car is accelerating while your own inertia holds you back (while a very
gentle start might not even be noticeable). But if you are just dropping
toward the moon, the spacecraft and everything in it---including you---will
be falling at the same rate. There would be nothing to give you any clues
that you are accelerating.

You would only feel "thrown back" if the spacecraft you are in (or even just
your spacesuit) were constantly accelerating faster than your inertia can
keep up with. This would not be the case if you and your spacecraft were
dropping under the influence of the moon's gravity. Everything---including
the fluid in your inner ear---would be falling at the same rate of 1.6 m/s²
..

RM

Painius wrote,

We are "thrown" backward, and we can
*feel* this sensation.

So THAT's what i'm talking about...
feeling the "being thrown back" feeling
that we can feel when our bodies are
accelerating. Would you feel this feeling
if falling toward the surface of the Moon?

Against my previously stated instinct "not to go there" re. the
flowing-space model of gravity, i'll risk it anyway since it directly
addresses Paine's question.
'Thought experiment': You have erected a 2000 foot high
tower on the moon for the purpose of jumping off the top ("base jumping"
in Earth lingo). While poised to jump, you weigh 30 pounds (1/6 your
Earth weight). When you jump, you instantly weigh zero; you're instantly
weightless in freefall. Yet you feel absolutely no acceleration. Why is
this? It's counterintuitive as heck. If gravity is an "attraction", you
should feel a sudden jerk up to falling speed.
Under the flowing-space model of gravity, it's
perfectly clear what is happening; upon jumping, you're suddenly "going
with the flow" of the spatial medium itself. Your 'weight' before
jumping was simply matter's resistance to the flow of the spatial
medium.
In the oft-mentioned analogy of the Dutch windmill,
the latticed blades catch the force of the wind while yet permeable to
the wind. In like manner, the atomic lattice of matter 'catches' the
force of the spatial flow while yet permeable to it. The denser the
atomic lattice, the higher the resistance, and the 'heavier' a unit of
matter is. Yet that same unit of matter 'weighs' zero and experiences
zero acceleration while "going with the flow", i.e., freefalling.
And again, the oft-mentioned bathroom scale gives a
direct analog readout of matter's resistance to the flow, and its
directionality. oc

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