NA Space travel basics

[overdrive148]

 

[EdFred]

I have wasted many hours in KSP.

 

[Half Fast]

The sad thing is how many students taking physics today have no idea when "zero gravity" begins during space flight, or why it happens when you're in orbit.

You would think anyone who's ever ridden a roller coaster would get this.

Sad.

 

[overdrive148]

I about popped an eye out when I heard the commercial for "zero gravity seats" inspired by NASA for cars

 

[overdrive148]

Also, for those KSPers, have you guys heard of DarkMultiPlayer mod? KSP but multiplayer, handles the effects of time warping to a "sync" option. You can see each other and fly around and share builds. Pretty interesting.

https://d-mp.org/

 

[vontresc]

My big brother told me their is no gravity in space,
I tried to explain their was , but you have this orbital velocity thing holding thing up there,
he said BS,
I bounced this all off my science teacher,
he thought my brother was right!

Well your school must be awesome. Idiot science teachers, and crap English teachers to boot...

 

[azure]

You would think anyone who's ever ridden a roller coaster would get this.

Sad.

Or even an elevator.

It doesn't bother me so much that they didn't know it before taking the course, but that they STILL don't know it after they've sat through it, supposedly listening and using their gray matter...

Not all of them of course... but too many.

 

[GlennAB1]

The sad thing is how many students taking physics today have no idea when "zero gravity" begins during space flight, or why it happens when you're in orbit. I've heard the "air is gone" theory but the commonest misconception is that it's because you're out of Earth's gravitational field. Even sadder: after you give them the correct explanation and have them do the calculation and see that the gravitational force at 200 mi above the surface is about 91% what it is on the surface, many of them still don't get it...

True. At an altitude of 250 mi, equivalent to a typical orbit of the Space Shuttle, gravity is still nearly 90% as strong as at the Earth's surface. Weightlessness occurs because orbiting objects are in free fall. You can experience weightlessness in an aircraft, or on a rollercoaster, for that matter.