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Re: summary of weight

At 05:31 PM 10/16/99 -0400, Bob Sciamanda wrote:

Can I choose ANY reference frame?

Anything halfway reasonable should be fine.... (Quibbles about
gravitational quantum thermodynamics when the frame accelerates at 10**35
Gees will be ignored.)

Eg., can I ask for the weight of an
orbiting astronaut in the "earth surface" frame?

Go for it. Ask away!

Is he then weightless in this frame?

Absolutely not. He has weight = M * 9.8 m/s/s (to within 1%) in such a
frame, assuming a typical low-earth orbit. This causes him to "fall" i.e.
to accelerate earthwards i.e. to stay in orbit rather than flying off
tangentially.

______________________________________________________________
copyright (C) 1999 John S. Denker jsd@monmouth.com