A question about physics.

[drewbirmingha]

This is my first post here. I have been looking on the internet for a good place to ask this question. I thank you in advance for any of your responses. Andrew

Question:
Would an object that was entirely enclosed in a vacuum, that is suspended by magnetic force, be affected by friction? I'm wondering if this object is spinning, would it stop after time or continue to spin indefinitely. If this is not the case, is their anyway to have that object spin as the planets in our solar system do (Indefinitely). I don't know much about physics, but it seems that once this object is started in its rotation it would continue to spin. Maybe there is something I am not thinking of. Thank you again. I await all of your answers.

One more question of clarification:
Does a vacuum act as anti-gravity so to say. I understand that "Space" is a vacuum. Please correct this if I am wrong.

 

[Mephisto]

Welcome to the forum!

To answer your first part of the question, first remember that we can never achieve perfect vacuum. We can only achieve a vacuum that is good enough. So in the theoretical case where you do have it, yes it would spin infinitely. However, in any practical attempt at it, it will eventually stop, and it is only a matter of how long it will take. Same goes for planets in space.

Secondly, vacuum has nothing to do with gravity... nothing at all. For example the astronauts on the International Space station are not in zero-gravity at all. There is plenty of gravity everywhere around them, it is just that they are in never-ending free fall. They are constantly falling towards Earth, but always missing it because of their tangential speed.