Al is floating freely in her spacecraft, and you are accelerating away from her with an acceleration of 1g. Suppose you claim that you are feeling the effects of a gravitational field. How can you explain the fact that Al is weightless?

a) She is weightless because she is in free-fall

b) She is weightless because she is moving at constant velocity

c) If you are in a gravitational field, then she cannot be weightless

d) She is weightless because she is in a free-float frame

Question

Ashton Johnson

Physics

3 January, 19:53

Al is floating freely in her spacecraft, and you are accelerating away from her with an acceleration of 1g. Suppose you claim that you are feeling the effects of a gravitational field. How can you explain the fact that Al is weightless?

a) She is weightless because she is in free-fall

b) She is weightless because she is moving at constant velocity

c) If you are in a gravitational field, then she cannot be weightless

d) She is weightless because she is in a free-float frame

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Answers (1)

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Mendez · Answer 1

Option a) She is weightless because she is in free fall

Explanation:

Free fall can be described as body in motion where the body is under the effect of acceleration due to gravity only and no other acceleration ...

Since, the effects of gravitational field can be sensed, so, if general theory of relativity is to be considered, no force acts on a freely falling body where gravitation reduces to a space-time curvature

Any object in term of "free fall" may not necessarily be falling down or object going in upward direction is not normally considered to be in falling motion until and unless acted upon by the force of gravity only, it is in free fall.