Re:Virgin Galactic successfully reaches space
by stetrain on Thursday December 13, 2018 @05:12PM
(#18676619)
There's a difference between experienced "G-Force" and the amount you are accelerating due to gravity.
Basically, gravity can accelerate you all that it wants, but if there is no force resisting that acceleration (air drag, your feet against the ground, the seat pushing on your back in an airplane) then you don't feel that acceleration.
"Gravitation acting alone does not produce a g-force, even though g-forces are expressed in multiples of the acceleration of a standard gravity. Thus, the standard gravitational acceleration at the Earth's surface produces g-force only indirectly, as a result of resistance to it by mechanical forces. These mechanical forces actually produce the g-force acceleration on a mass. For example, the 1 g force on an object sitting on the Earth's surface is caused by mechanical force exerted in the upward direction by the ground, keeping the object from going into free fall."
Basically, gravity can accelerate you all that it wants, but if there is no force resisting that acceleration (air drag, your feet against the ground, the seat pushing on your back in an airplane) then you don't feel that acceleration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-force
"Gravitation acting alone does not produce a g-force, even though g-forces are expressed in multiples of the acceleration of a standard gravity. Thus, the standard gravitational acceleration at the Earth's surface produces g-force only indirectly, as a result of resistance to it by mechanical forces. These mechanical forces actually produce the g-force acceleration on a mass. For example, the 1 g force on an object sitting on the Earth's surface is caused by mechanical force exerted in the upward direction by the ground, keeping the object from going into free fall."