Tag: gravitational constant

“Without Gravity”

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It always fascinates me to see videos and photographs from the International Space Station (ISS), how simple day to day activities are so altered because of the altered Physics of constant free fall in orbit around the Earth.  Many of the videos are showing what people call the ‘effects of zero gravity.’ This is actually not the case.  There is gravity in space.  Let’s take a closer look at the situation of an ISS astronaut. If we do the math (I do realize the term ‘do the math’ turns away a lot of people, so I will keep it short),...

Is Gravity the Same Everywhere?

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One of the big questions in astrophysics is about variation of the laws of Physics.  The laws we know and are familiar with; angular momentum, gravity, energy, are the same everywhere on Earth.  But what about beyond Earth? The universe is so large and so vast, we may be in a local region where the laws of Physics are set, and our laws may be different from a distinct region somewhere else in the universe. The good news is that we can make predictions based on our understanding of physics. And with our powerful telescopes that allow us to view a variety of...