Q24 of 38 Page 61

An astronaut inside a small spaceship orbiting around the earth cannot detect gravity. If the space station orbiting around the earth has a large size, can he hope to detect gravity?

An astronaut in a small spaceship around earth is always in freefall and is constantly under the influence of gravitational force of earth and since the spaceship is small its gravitational force on the astronaut is very small as compared to earth, therefore the astronaut cannot detect gravity. If the spaceship is large enough to produce a comparable gravitational force against earth’s gravitational force the astronaut will then detect gravity.


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