Explanations for falling

[Wyatt Earp]

Over in the empty echoing corridors of Books, Fatter Hipper said that gravity was only one explanation of why things fall down instead of up, and that there were alternative explanations. What do people think those alternative explanations might be?

[Stumpy Pepys]

Explanations for falling

Intelligent Falling

[San Bernardhinault]

Explanations for falling

Perhaps everything starts off going downwards, in its natural, passive state, so force needs to be applied to make it stop or go up. It could be one of the undiscovered fundamental rules.

[Wyatt Earp]

Explanations for falling

Apologies for this rather unsubtle attempt to flush you out, by the way, FH.

[San Bernardhinault]

Explanations for falling

Or mass could, of itself, create a pressure differential with higher pressure above than below that object, forcing all objects downwards.

[evilC]

Explanations for falling

La Lanterne Rouge wrote:

Or mass could, of itself, create a pressure differential with higher pressure above than below that object, forcing all objects downwards.

By that logic, if we fell into water, wouldn't we bounce off it?

[ad hoc]

Explanations for falling

Pessimism

[Mumpo]

Explanations for falling

I'll go with the current Today's Topics page:

Explanations for falling
Beer culture and "conservatism"

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Explanations for falling

I thought this was going to be another thread about the relative strengths of the dollar and sterling and differential interest rates.

[Wyatt Earp]

Explanations for falling

Even better than that...

[Bruno]

Explanations for falling

What if it turned out that what we thought was down, was really up?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Explanations for falling

Oh. My. God.

(see what I did there?)

I've just clicked on that link. Fucking hell, these people should not be allowed outside of secure institutions, let alone anywhere near children. And definitely not sharp instruments.

[Wyatt Earp]

Explanations for falling

You spotted it was the Onion, right?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Explanations for falling

Edit: no, I hadn't. Pillock!

Anyway,

What if it turned out that what we thought was down, was really up?

To some extent, it already is. The earth's orbit around the Sun is on a plane around 60 degrees askew to the Sun's orbit around the hub of the Milky Way, hence why the Milky Way appears to cross only four zodiacal constellations (Saggitarius, Scorpio, Gemini and Taurus).

"Up" is not overhead, nor even anywhere near Polaris, but actually (in the winter night sky in the Northern hemisphere) virtually on the horizon, some way under the "tail" of Ursa Major.

I've never heard an explanation why the planets' orbits around the Sun (which are all pretty much on the same plane) aren't aligned to the Sun's orbit around the centre of the galaxy.

[Ginger Yellow]

Explanations for falling

Wasn't the dominant pre-Newtonian idea of gravity that earth was at the centre of the universe, and because of God's awesomeness everything in the universe was attracted to it?

[Wyatt Earp]

Explanations for falling

How are you defining "down" here?

I've never heard an explanation why the planets' orbits around the Sun (which are all pretty much on the same plane) aren't aligned to the Sun's orbit around the centre of the galaxy

Why should they be?

[Wyatt Earp]

Explanations for falling

Ginger Yellow wrote:

Wasn't the dominant pre-Newtonian idea of gravity that earth was at the centre of the universe, and because of God's awesomeness everything in the universe was attracted to it?

Is that one of FH's alternative explanations?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Explanations for falling

Well, the theory as to why all the planets' orbits are pretty much on one plane is that when they were formed, the Solar System was a disc of matter that was spinning around one plane, and the planets coalesced out of that spinning disc. So why was that disc, in itself, not being dragged into the plane of spin that it was, in itself, being tugged around by the centre of the galaxy?

[evilC]

Explanations for falling

Wyatt Earp wrote:

Ginger Yellow wrote:

Wasn't the dominant pre-Newtonian idea of gravity that earth was at the centre of the universe, and because of God's awesomeness everything in the universe was attracted to it?

Is that one of FH's alternative explanations?

More like Hell is indeed in the bowels of the Earth and each time we fall over, we start to move in that direction - just in case, like.

[Ginger Yellow]

Explanations for falling

I've never heard an explanation why the planets' orbits around the Sun (which are all pretty much on the same plane) aren't aligned to the Sun's orbit around the centre of the galaxy.

Because the planets' orbits were (give or take a few collisions) determined by the rotation of the sun's protoplanetary disc, which in turn was determined by the sun's axis of rotation. There's no particular reason for the sun's axis to be the same as the Milky Way's.

[Wyatt Earp]

Explanations for falling

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote:

Well, the theory as to why all the planets' orbits are pretty much on one plane is that when they were formed, the Sun was a disc of matter that was spinning around one plane of spin, and the planets coalesced out of the central plane of that spinning dic. So why was that disc, in itself, not being dragged into the plane of spin that it was, in itself, being tugged around by the centre of the galaxy?

Common origin, together with damping and resonance effects, yeah. But again: why should that cause an alignment with galactic spin? I don't see why we should expect to see that.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Explanations for falling

why should that cause an alignment with galactic spin? I don't see why we should expect to see that.

Common origin, together with damping and resonance effects, yeah.

[Wyatt Earp]

Explanations for falling

Rogin the Armchair Fan wrote:

why should that cause an alignment with galactic spin? I don't see why we should expect to see that.

Common origin, together with damping and resonance effects, yeah.

Explain.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Explanations for falling

Why, when the Sun itself coalesced out of whatever galactic dust was whipping around our region of space on the edge of the Milky Way galaxy at 230,000 mph or whatever, was it not spun to align itself with Galactic "up"?

[Ginger Yellow]

Explanations for falling

Think about it this way - within the solar system, the planets have widely varying axes of rotation. Earth is 17 degrees off the perpendicular of the plane of its orbit and Venus is flipped upside down. So we shouldn't be especialy surprised that the sun is also "off".