Re: Apparent weight

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@sfu.ca>]

> I did not use the word "weightlessness", I said "apparent weight" is changed.
> The operational definition? The bathroom scale in an accelerator when v is
> changing. Students go to the elevator and observe what happens; it is a
> part of a lab in Concepts of Science. What is wrong with this?

I've no problem with apparent weight being the reading on a scale.
I ask: How is apparent weight related to gravitational field? Is
gravitational field just the ratio of apparent weight to inertial
mass? That is the usual operational definition. The apparent weight
of a mass in an orbiting shuttle is mighty small, I'll wager. That
means the gravitational field in the shuttle is mighty small, too.

Leigh