I In Freefall orbiting Jupiter versus Earth

AI Thread Summary
An astronaut in freefall around Jupiter, like one around Earth, does not feel their weight due to the absence of a normal force acting on them. Despite Jupiter's strong gravitational pull, the astronaut would not experience biological effects from this gravity while in freefall, as they would not feel the weight unless they were in contact with a surface. The significant gravitational force is uniform across their body, preventing any internal stress or strain that could be measured. Tidal gravity, which occurs when there is a differential gravitational force, would only be notable if the astronaut were on a surface or if larger bodies were involved, such as Earth falling toward Jupiter. Thus, in freefall, the astronaut would feel weightless regardless of the planet's gravity.
Albertgauss
Gold Member
Messages
294
Reaction score
37
TL;DR Summary
Jupiter g ~ 25 Would you feel it?
I know that in Earth, an astronaut feels weightless in orbit but actually is not. The astronaut would not feel his own weight until he actually stands on a floor where his feet point towards the Earth as the Normal Force is the perception of weight.

So, in Jupiter, where g ~ 25, an astronaut in freefall also would not feel their own weight. However, does that mean there would be no biological effects despite the increased gravity?

I have heard it said that a person who normally has a weight of 600 Newtons on Earth would then weigh ~ 1500 Newtons on Jupiter, enough to have a heart attack since a normal heart could not pump blood through such excess weight. But if the person is in freefall in Jupiter, this would not happen as they would need to have their feet on the surface of a ship to feel this 1500 Newton. Is this correct?

Please ignore everything else about Jupiter except for what is the discussion here. I am well aware of all the problems of falling into Jupiter, just had a question of this one detail.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Let's stick to the classical theory of gravity. There is a significant gravitational force acting when you are in freefall. But, because the force is the same on each particle, there is no additional internal stress or strain that would enable you to measure the overall gravitational force. For that reason, you would feel nothing, whether it's Jupiter or the Earth.

The only time you would feel anything is if the differential in gravitational force between, say, your head and feet was large. This will be negligible for a planet even the size of Jupiter. This is called tidal gravity, and it's this difference in the Moon's gravity between one part of an ocean and another that causes the tides. If, say, the Earth was falling towards Jupiter, then this tidal gravity between the part of the Earth that was closest to Jupiter and the part that was furthest away would be significant and the Earth would be stretched as a result.
 
  • Like
Likes vanhees71 and russ_watters
Sounds good. I see where I was getting confused. Consider this answered.
 
  • Like
Likes vanhees71, Dale and berkeman
Thread 'Question about pressure of a liquid'
I am looking at pressure in liquids and I am testing my idea. The vertical tube is 100m, the contraption is filled with water. The vertical tube is very thin(maybe 1mm^2 cross section). The area of the base is ~100m^2. Will he top half be launched in the air if suddenly it cracked?- assuming its light enough. I want to test my idea that if I had a thin long ruber tube that I lifted up, then the pressure at "red lines" will be high and that the $force = pressure * area$ would be massive...
I feel it should be solvable we just need to find a perfect pattern, and there will be a general pattern since the forces acting are based on a single function, so..... you can't actually say it is unsolvable right? Cause imaging 3 bodies actually existed somwhere in this universe then nature isn't gonna wait till we predict it! And yea I have checked in many places that tiny changes cause large changes so it becomes chaos........ but still I just can't accept that it is impossible to solve...

Similar threads

Back
Top