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Re: Weight



Ah, but the astronauts DO have a measurement--they are moving in a circle
and therefore must be accelerating towards the center of that circular
path. A force must be the source of that acceleration, and that force is
their 'weight'.

Not necessarily, if all the windows of the passenger cabin are shut, they
have know way of knowing that they are moving in a circle. Hence, why the
comment about local measurements.

I believe that fundamentally the weight discussion is a matter of taste and
pedagogical preference of how one wants to define "weight". I've registered
my opinion, which comes from reconciling the common usage of the word
"weightless" with the physics and wanting to avoid using words like
"apparent weightlessness" to describe the behaviour of astronaugts as they
orbit the earth.

Joel