Biology, eh?

[abygael]

Those of you who know me in real life are probably aware of my general disdain for biology. Now I'm not about to change my stance at all - obviously physics will forever remain far superior - but having been researching and pondering biology for a story I'm currently writing, I've come to realise exactly why I disdain it so.

Comments

[abygael]

Newtonianly:

Force (in general) = mass x acceleration.

Force (Gravitational) = G x mass planet x mass person / (R squared). Where G is the gravitational constant and R is the distance from the centre of mass (in this case the centre of the earth).

If you combine the above two equations, the mass of the person cancels out and you get:

acceleration = G x mass planet / (R squared)

That's the "acceleration due to gravity" and the reason why (air resistance notwithstanding) all objects fall at the same rate (since the mass of the falling object cancelled out. Different mass objects experience a different force but still the same acceleration).

Einsteinianly:

A massive object (ie the Earth) bends/curves space around it. If you imagine spacetime as a flat(ish) rubber sheet, massive objects are like dimples or dents in its surface. Something on the edge of one of these dimples (ie on the Earth's surface) wants to fall/slide/roll inwards. The gradient of the side of the dimple is steeper the closer you get to the centre which means that the acceleration with which you slide downwards depends only on your distance from the centre. Of course people don't actually fall into the centre of the Earth because the surface of the Earth is there to hold them up.

Ok, so that second explaination was about as fluffy as the first was formulaic, but it's the best I can do on an empty stomach and while worrying about organic chemistry.

[jeebuz_avt]

"It's not really anything like that at all, but it is relaxing to think about"