this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
195 points (91.8% liked)

Science Memes

11189 readers
2767 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 194 points 6 months ago (10 children)

For anyone wondering it's because the bowling ball slightly pulls the earth faster toward itself. This amount is too small to possibly measure. But imagine if the bowling ball were the size of another Earth and it's easier to see why it happens.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (4 children)

But being more massive means that due to inertia the ball will take just a tiny little wee bit longer to start moving no? So they end up falling at the same time.

Also, are these Newtonian mechanics? How do they compare to relativity at the "bowling ball and feather" scale?

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. It's been a while since I read anything physics-related.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

The above is just referring to the fact that the standard "feather vs. bowling ball" question assumes the earth/moon/ground is immovable. In that case, Newton says they fall the same.

The fact that the ground is not immovable is what's being referenced


in this picture, things don't "fall," they are each accelerated towards each other.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (8 replies)