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shreder
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imagine there is a ball on a table on a spaceship that is not moving there is no gravitational force acting on the ball
will there be a normal force
will there be a normal force
Not moving with respect to what? If there's nothing pushing the objects together, why would there be a normal force?shreder said:imagine there is a ball on a table on a spaceship that is not moving there is no gravitational force acting on the ball
will there be a normal force
Cosmobrain said:First of all, if there is no gravity, how can the ball stay on the table?
Either way, no. There is no normal force
cb
danjordan said:But there's still gravitational attaction between the objects, right? Wouldn't they eventually come into contact?
SteamKing said:Perhaps. Perhaps not. The spaceship has mass, presumably more mass than either the table or the ball.
Cosmobrain said:Oh, whoops. OP said the ball and the table are in a space ship. Well...
I assume the table and the ball are inside the spaceship and the spaceship is totally closed. The force of gravity pulling the table due to the greater mass of the ship will pull everything down (edit: I know there is no up and down in space, but come on...). However, the "ceiling" of the ship will pull it up, canceling it out. However, if we assume that the base of the ship has much more mass than the top, it will attract the table and the ball and there will be a normal force that keeps the ball from crossing the table. Correct me if I'm wrong
imagine there is a ball on a table on a spaceship that is not moving there is no gravitational force acting on the ball will there be a normal force
jbriggs444 said:Right or wrong, we're off on a tangent here.
The original post asked:
shreder said:when i said there is no gravitational force acting on the ball i meant no external force to the system
there is simply a ball on a table in space
both objects are at rest
there are no forces acting on them except for the gravitational force between them(forget the space ship)
shreder said:all i wanted to know was if without weight there still would be a normal force
this all started because my physics teacher that has only a degree in chemistry thinks she is smart "the normal force has nothing to do with gravity"
sophiecentaur said:She is correct about the fact that there will be electric forces between the molecules in contact between ball and table. These forces will be much greater than the gravitational ones.
In the vacuum of space, these forces can cause substances to weld together so they are difficult to separate. The effect was a surprise for early Space Engineers.
shreder said:all i wanted to know was if without weight there still would be a normal force
this all started because my physics teacher that has only a degree in chemistry thinks she is smart "the normal force has nothing to do with gravity"
well thank you all for posting your answers
The normal force in space is the force that a surface exerts on an object that is in contact with it. It is perpendicular to the surface and acts to support the weight of the object.
In space, the normal force on a ball on a table in a spaceship is significantly reduced due to the absence of gravity. On Earth, the normal force is equal to the weight of the object, but in space, it is only present due to the contact between the object and the surface.
Yes, the normal force on a ball on a table in a spaceship can be zero if the ball is not in contact with the surface. This can happen if the ball is floating in microgravity or if it is in free fall.
The normal force on the ball on the table in a spaceship affects its motion by providing a support force against the weight of the ball. Without the normal force, the ball would continue to move in a straight line due to inertia.
The other forces acting on the ball on the table in a spaceship are its weight, which is the force of gravity pulling it towards the center of the Earth, and any external forces, such as a push or pull from an astronaut or the force of air resistance if the spaceship is in the Earth's atmosphere.