Explanations for falling

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Explanations for falling

Sounds incredibly random to me, that, GY. What sort of intelligent creator would have come up with that? Ah, unless it was precisely to put that question into the minds of Man . Bloody hell, he's cunning, that God.

[Wyatt Earp]

Explanations for falling

Are you trolling with this, man?

[West End Zuma]

Explanations for falling

What a brain boggle. Let me see if I understand this.

If the plain of the Galaxy we're in goes from 9 oclock to 3 oclock and the plain of the Solar System is say 10 oclock to 4 oclock and the axis of the earth is tilted roughly 45 (?) degrees from Solar plain then that means if I fall out of an aeroplane at mid-day on the equator I'm falling upwards at roughly 135 (?) degrees compared to the plain of the Galaxy. Likewise at midnight on the equator I'll be falling downwards at 225 (?) degrees to the plain of the galaxy. My maths are not so good, but Is that about right?

I wonder what angle our galaxy is in our flat universe. Could we be living in an upside down galaxy?

[Wyatt Earp]

Explanations for falling

infinite probability wrote:

My maths are not so good, but Is that about right?

I don't think so, no, because it's a 3D problem, meaning that you can't just add all the angles like that. The answer will depend on your longitude and the season.

I'm against this usage of "up", though. "Up" ought to mean something like "in the opposite direction to the gravitational field where you are" (or its relativistic equivalent).

[Ginger Yellow]

Explanations for falling

I'm against this usage of "up", though. "Up" ought to mean something like "in the opposite direction to the gravitational field where you are" (or its relativistic equivalent).

Yeah. Any other definition seems either arbitrary or nonsensical. That said, if a gravitational field and an accelerating reference frame are equivalent, wouldn't that mean "up" and "down" flip in an elevator accelerating in either direction? That seems wrong.

I wonder what angle our galaxy is in our flat universe. Could we be living in an upside down galaxy?

I have trouble thinking about the geometry of the universe, but I think this question is ill-formed. Mainly for the reasons state above - "upside down" would have to be relative to all the other galaxies (and all the other matter), not the universe as in spacetime. And certainly galaxies have all sorts of orientations. But furthermore I think it's ill-formed because the universe isn't "flat" in that sense.

[Purves Grundy]

Explanations for falling

in the opposite direction to the gravitational field where you are

The lost Russ Meyer classic.

[Wyatt Earp]

Explanations for falling

Ginger Yellow wrote:

Yeah. Any other definition seems either arbitrary or nonsensical. That said, if a gravitational field and an accelerating reference frame are equivalent, wouldn't that mean "up" and "down" flip in an elevator accelerating in either direction? That seems wrong.

You wouldn't formulate it like that, though. I'm not that good at general relativity (never was, even when I done it at uni), but I think you'd look at the direction of local curvature of spacetime, or something like that.

[Ginger Yellow]

Explanations for falling

Actually, now I think about it, it would make sense if the acceleration was enough to overwhelm gravity, ie, if you started to float "up". Just turn yourself around so your feet are on the ceiling, and the only thing telling you that you're "upside down" would be the decor inside the elevator