Tag Archives: gravity

Blog Post #3: Defying Gravity

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Lauren

It always blew my mind that despite the vastness of the universe, there was a central force that centered it all.  Just thinking about how far away the sun is from the earth, but how a certain force (gravity) can still pull the two together past the distance to create an orbit and a revolution […] Continue reading →

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Hip-stars Wobble Too!

Posted on February 16, 2014 by juliamac17

So one of the things I think is cute about the universe we live in is that even in the most vastness you rarely find things alone. And these kindred stellar bodies don’t just ignore each other. Oh no, they get caught up in each other’s gravity. And it is this fun and nifty relation […] Continue reading →

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Why is gravity so weak?

Posted on February 16, 2014 by bsturge93

Gravity is a fundamental force that holds together our solar system, our galaxy, and every person to Earth. It must be pretty strong to hold something as massive as Jupiter in orbit right? Actually, compared to the three other fundamental forces, gravity is unimaginably weak. To demonstrate this, use a common refrigerator magnet to pick … Continue reading Why is gravity so weak? → Continue reading →

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Constantly Falling

Posted on February 16, 2014 by ilman

Contrary to popular belief, there is gravity in space, in fact gravity is everywhere. On the International Space Station, there is as much gravitational force as it is on Earth’s surface. But then… why are those astronauts (in the video) merrily floating around? Not to ruin the party or anything, but they are not floating […] Continue reading →

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The Earth and Rubber Bands

Posted on February 15, 2014 by juliamac17

So I found this neat video, curtesy of YouTube that helped me understand tides a little better. What confused me most – and I’m sure I’m not the only one for whom this is true – is that the Moon’s gravitational pull on the Earth causes tides on both sides of the Earth. One thing that helped […] Continue reading →

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Gravitational Slingshots

Posted on April 10, 2013 by ibrahim2016

I always wondered why doesn’t the sun slow space probes down when they are leaving the Earth for outer planets. Isn’t there a risk that the probe might change its trajectory and fall into the sun? There is. You see, the more distant the space probe gets from the Sun, the more potential energy it […] Continue reading →

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GRAIL Maps the Gravity of the Moon

Posted on March 20, 2013 by JT McJunkins

  Twin NASA probes orbiting the moon for the Gravity Recovery and Interior Labority (GRAIL) mission have created the most highly detailed gravity field map of any celestial body. Pictured above, this map reveals an abundance of features includ… Continue reading →

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Relativistic Doodles

Posted on March 19, 2013 by ibrahim2016

This post explains how my illustration of general relativistic time dilation works. This is the parent post. Here is an image of a simple classical timeline: There are 2 observers: green and red. They have their own watches. The red observer shoots an arrow towards the green observer. The position of the arrow vs. the […] Continue reading →

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Everyday is SUNday

Posted on March 17, 2013 by ndtidol

The Sun is the single most important object in our solar system. It makes up over 99% of the mass of the solar system, exerts gravitational force over the whole […] Continue reading →

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Gravity around the Solar System

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Elizabeth Merriman

In class, we looked at why an astronaut experiences weightlessness in the space station, even though the force of gravity is not significantly less than on the surface of the Earth.  This is because the space station is falling at the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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