Does a vacuum act as anti-gravity?

[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.

 

[sir-pinski]

Hi Andrew, welcome to the forum! Your question is a very interesting one and it actually has a few different aspects to consider.

Firstly, in regards to friction, it depends on the material the object is made of and the surface it is suspended on. If the object is made of a material with very low friction, such as superconducting materials, and it is suspended on a surface with very low friction, such as liquid helium, then it could potentially spin indefinitely. However, in most cases, there will still be some small amount of friction that will eventually slow down the object's rotation.

Secondly, you are correct that an object in a vacuum would experience less resistance or "anti-gravity" compared to in an atmosphere. However, the magnetic force suspending the object would still have to overcome the object's own mass and inertia in order to keep it spinning. So while a vacuum may reduce some external forces, it would not completely eliminate the need for a continuous force to keep the object spinning.

Lastly, the rotation of planets in our solar system is due to their initial momentum from the formation of the solar system, as well as the gravitational pull of the sun and other planets. In a vacuum, there would be no external forces acting on the object to keep it spinning like the planets. However, if the object was in space and near other massive objects, it could potentially experience a similar type of rotation due to the gravitational pull of those objects.

I hope this helps answer your questions and gives you a better understanding of the physics involved. Keep asking curious questions!