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Re: [Phys-l] pseudo-force



Tim F wrote:

Gravity pulls on all parts of your body and hence doesn't cause any
distortion and hence you don't "feel' it. But if you are standing on
the floor, the soles of your feet compress, causing the sensation of
force.

Are you talking about free fall? You certainly aren't talking about no
distortion (other than feet) when standing on earth. While standing on
earth, our spine is compressed. Perhaps you are in better shape than I,
but my belly sags. And if I stand on my head it sags the other way. If
I lie down and do leg lifts, when I lift my legs off the floor, the calf
muscles sag down. And balance mechanisms in our inner ear are sensing
gravity. Etc.

No distortion? I say there is distortion and I say I feel gravity. I
realize if you put me in free fall the sensation is different. So what?
If you stand me on earth and turn off gravity that will feel different
also. That is, if there were a gravity switch, and you strapped me to a
chair bolted to earth, and then you turn gravity on and off, I could
sense the difference between off and on. And I wouldn't only sense the
difference in my butt. I would sense it all over.

I realize you can still call this a particular viewpoint. But if a
person could sit there and sense gravity being turned on an off, any
person in their right mind would say they were sensing gravity.


Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry and Physics
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu