ANY SCIENTIST OR EINSTEINS HERE PLEASE ANSWER!!

wolfie_cr · Sep 11, 2004

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>
yep. "Up" and "down" are determined in relationship to gravity. Gravity pulls you towards the center of the earth, so "up" is always away from the center. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

my point is that in a sphere, there is no up/down side....I think that should be pretty clear....

quantumleap · Sep 11, 2004

Every atom attracts every other atom. When you get large amounts of atoms together they cause an enormous amount of attraction. We stay on the Earth because the atoms of Earth pull us toward it.

-Slim- · Sep 11, 2004

it really gets messy if you try to explain the fact that the earth is also spinning

drunkguy · Sep 11, 2004

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by wolfie_cr:

my point is that in a sphere, there is no up/down side....I think that should be pretty clear.... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

there is an up/down side..things fall DOWN only...down is defined by gravity...every point outside a planet has a "down" and it is towards the middle

DarrylParsons · Sep 12, 2004

Jabow,

Using your baseball analogy, imagine a very small particle (can't even see it with the naked eye) living on the baseball. What does he see? When you look really close, the leather on the baseball has lots of pores. He's stuck in one of those pores and so the white leather around him looks like the Grand Canyon. If there is a speck of dust on it, that looks like Mount Everest and if there is saliva from the last spitball, that looks like the Dead Sea. No way in hell he can see enough of the ball to notice that it's round.

Java · Sep 12, 2004

Jabow-
The Earth is round because when the earth was a molten mass (center still is) it was like a drop of water in space. Gravity from the center pulls equally in all directions.

The equator does have a slight bulge because of Earth's spin. (Like the tendency to be thrown off a fast-moving merry-go-round.)

As for why it appears flat to us, even though it is round: The circumference of the Earth is 25,000 miles (132 million feet, or 22 million times the height of a 6-foot man). Now, how 'flat' would a 1-mile diameter ball appear to an ant walking on it?

Jabow · Sep 12, 2004

Java. Darryl. DRUNK GUY (lol) all others thanks a gazillion for your input,
but I'm still saying thatas large as the world is, it is still ROUND, ROUND ROUND unless there is a different definition for round than I've known, with that in mind
no matter which way is up or down at some or any point a bunch a people are like on an angle or upside down

wolfie_cr · Sep 12, 2004

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR> there is an up/down side..things fall DOWN only...down is defined by gravity...every point outside a planet has a "down" and it is towards the middle <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

if you want to define it as such thats fine, but jabow is trying to imply that 50% of the people is on the "upper" side of the earth and the rest is on the "down" side, that's where I will INSIST that a planet has no up/down side

DarrylParsons · Sep 12, 2004

Jabow,

OK, let me put it to you this way then...

All the round things you have seen so far have been very close to another MUCH MUCH MUCH bigger round thing (ie. the earth). By definition the direction "down" is the direction which is towards the MUCH MUCH MUCH bigger round thing. The direction "up" is the opposite direction.

When you look at the earth itself you can no longer use these definitions of "up" and "down" because it is very far away from other round things which are much, much bigger than it.

DarrylParsons · Sep 12, 2004

OK I'm bored so I'll go into more detail...

In physics, the term "frame of reference" is used to describe what you are looking at before you examine anything -- kind of like what's in the background of the photo of the object you want to examine.

Any time you examine something, you must specify the frame of reference. Why? Because as Einstein said, everything is relative. Things do not move. They move relative to something else only. There is no such thing as up. The word "up" has meaning only relative to something else. That something else is the frame of reference, usually the earth.

Since over 99% of the stuff we examine has the earth as its frame of reference, we don't bother to mention the frame of reference every time because that would be redundant and tedious. Yet when the frame of reference is not the earth (like when you examine the earth itself, for example), then you must specify the frame of reference because none is assumed.

Once you do that, words like "up" and "down" will have meaning. Otherwise they won't.

christof · Sep 12, 2004

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR> Whether you want to hear it or not, the reason people remain planted with their feet on the ground no matter where on earth they are is, in fact, gravity. If they were out of the earth's atmosphere, they would float, such as in a spacecraft or on the moon, as there is no gravity pull holding them in place. Excuse this oldman as my engineering background couldn't resist. What a question. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You must really be old if they taught you this in your physics classes, because it is plain worng.

The moon and sattellites are CONSTANTLY "falling" towards the earth because of gravity... they just happen to be moving horizontally (from the earth's perspective) and manage to get out of the way of the earth.

If there was no gravity pulling them they wouldn't stick around long.

postaldoug · Sep 12, 2004

This isn't in the "rubber room" yet ? The moon has about 1/6th gravity of moon by the way.

miaplus3 · Sep 12, 2004

OK class, time to move on to sp orbital hybridization

TheGeneral+ · Sep 13, 2004

Fun thread to read. Did you know that the life expectancy of a professional cyclist is 50 years?

wolfie_cr · Sep 13, 2004

Here in Costa Rica it must be like 25 years old, we probably kill them like flies with the way we drive

newbie666 · Sep 13, 2004

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Jabow:
A question that I hope someone can give me a true answer to.

Question: The earth is round right?
So how come people are not falling off?

(Dont tell me about gravity with out a proper explanation why if the earth is round like a ball then maybe some how peolpe on "the other side" is upside down)

Round is round is round, so are people in south america and australia actually walking upside down?

And if the earth is round, how come every where you go, the ground is flat? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

In actuality, you do "feel" the Earth's rotation. You may not notice it, but it does affect us in minor ways. The Earth is rotating from east to west. This is why the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. This rotation causes toilets to flush clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere. This effect can also be observed in a similar fashion in people.

If you walk from the north pole to the equator following a compass bearing of due south, you will gradually begin to stray to the left (or east). This is because as you move south, the Earth is moving west under your feet to the west, so each step you take lands you slightly further east than the last. It is also due to the fact that successively lower (closer to the equator) lines of latitude span a larger circular distance. Since the entire Earth must rotate at a constant rotational velocity, a spot on the Earth at 10 degrees latitude will have a higher absolute motion than a spot at 70 degree latitude. So as you walk south your surroundings begin to move faster and faster as you get left a little more behind with each step. By the way, you move right (also to the east) in the southern hemisphere as you walk north towards the equator for the same reason.

This all has to do with inertia and perspective. You have intertia of rest and intertia of motion. We were born into a moving world so we started off with intertia of motion. Since we are not accelerating or decelerating (at least not fast enough for us to notice; the Earth's rate of rotation has varied over time) we continue living in our constantly spinning world. In the absense of this planet and atmosphere and any other gravitational effects, we would remain completely still in absolute space. What we notice on time scales we can understand from day to day comes solely from our perspective of our immediate surroundings. Since the Earth and atmosphere around us do not seem to move in relation to our position, we have no sense of motion. Even though the planet rotates about itself and about the sun, and our solar system rotates within the galaxy, we only notice movement of ourselves relative to our immediate surroundings. Take, for example, flying in a plane. Once the plane has reached its cruising speed, you no longer "feel" like you are traveling at over 500 mph. This is because the plane and the air mass within the plane is not accelerating or decelerating. You do have a strong gravitational pull from the Earth that makes it harder to walk forward than backward in a plane. This doesn't apply, however, when physically standing on the Earth.

but. like subzaero said, this is a 12 years old question...

buddyboy · Sep 13, 2004

if two people are standing facing one another and they both point to the right, why does one person always get it wrong and point to the left and then insist that they are indeed holding up their right hand?

Jabow · Sep 13, 2004

lol, very funny buddy boy

Danasun · Sep 13, 2004

In other words

We don't fall off the earth because gravity, a natural force that pulls two objects together keeps us "attached" to the earth's surface.

John_Kerry · Sep 13, 2004

Its gravity.

Why is it that when you throw a ball up into the air it comes back down to earth rather than continuing on into space or just remaining suspended in air ? Its because the Earth's gravity pulls the ball back just as it pulls you back when you jump up in the air after your team gets a TD.

If you dont believe in Gravitational force, how do you explain the fact that you come back to earth after jumping ? Why dont you just remain suspended in mid air ?

How come if you walk off the top of a building you fall toward earth as opposed to staying suspended in air or going off into the atmosphere. Clearly the gravitational pull of the Earth is a real phenomena. It can be seen in so many different areas everyday.

Also, you ask how come a guy on the other side of Earth doesn't fall off. I ask you, how come YOU didn't fall off 6 months ago. Guess what - 6 months ago you were in the exact position on Earth that he is today.