Recent content by himanshu2004@

Yes, as mender pointed out they will feel the same as they do on Earth as long as the spaceship is ascending/descending at constant velocity (assuming that g is roughly the same at that height). However, I'd like to add that while in all likelihood they descend at roughly constant velocity for...

No, whatever equilibrium position the balloon was in before the box is dropped, it would more or less continue to stay there, neutral buoyancy or not. (Of course one cannot really talk of an equilibrium position of the balloon during the box's free fall, because that's like being in zero...

@Bruce Yes that's exactly what I was trying to clarify that acceleration due to gravity is different from accelerating in non-inertial frames, such as cars that we are used to thinking about whenever we think "acceleration". In fact, being on the Earth (and hence NOT accelerating due the Earth's...

@Harrylin I don't have any personally collected evidence, but you could see the link posted earlier in the thread and this phenomenon seems mentioned in several places including texts of some repute. Regarding what you don't understand, I cannot provide any new explanation other than what has...

I agree with most of your post, but just a minor correction - the downward push felt has nothing to do with internal organs versus non-internal organs. When on the earth, the downward (or upward depending on how you look at it) force is felt by the all the organs - the body feels this downward...

@harrylin Sorry I should have clarified that the "righting reflex" bit I did understand. However, the physics of falling cats involves both the righting reflex and them relaxing and spreading out more on reaching terminal velocity, which further reduces terminal velocity as result of increased...

@Russ Yes it makes sense, I get it now

Yeah, I agree. You explained it much better than Russ did (and his mentioning the word "sudden" when talking about the change in acceleration versus the lack of it didn't really help because in fact after the initial point of falling the cat experiences a gradual change in the acceleration/force...

The point is, we are not used to being in space, so there would be a feeling in free-fall that feels different from standing on the ground. (edit: and you'd stop feeling that difference after whatever hours/days of being in space since you'd get used to that feeling, and then being back on the...

@superg33k I did a quick ctrl-F and didn't spot any ambiguity. "Falling" has always been used to mean free-falling, which is obvious given the context of this thread. In any case, all questions seem to have been resolved a while back, so why so serious? :)

Its at least partly physical as mentioned above since it feels different from the usual state. In a roller coaster your stomach anyways does get left behind when its accelerating/decelerating, due to inertia.

Air resistance certainly, but that's got only to do with velocity against the air. You would feel air resistance even if you were moving against air at a constant velocity. To the extent that its a real feeling, it happens because your stomach is used the effect of feeling its weight, which...

I believe that might make sense. Because its only after reaching terminal velocity that the cat experiences as much "upward push" as it is used to experiencing while standing/sitting on the ground.

Incorrect again. In an accelerating car, you can feel the acceleration, because you are "pushed" by accelerating car (like I said in the starting post of the thread), and the part of you which gets pushed first pushes the other parts and so on. Accelerating due to free fall, you cannot feel...

That seems completely incorrect. (Ignore my previous post, it was in a different context.) I am pretty sure that if the metal box is air-tight, the balloon would fall exactly as the same rate as the box. In any case, how is the material inside the balloon relevant?