I saw a really stupid post on Facebook talking about “how rockets don’t work.” Flat earther conspiracy nonsense. I started reading on all the points the post made and the only one I didn’t understand is how at 22 x the speed of sound a rocket does not really go over 3g’s of force.
My assumption is that as the rocket travels further from the earth the gravity influence also influences g’s on an accelerating object?
Please help me with this one.
Thank you
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G-force is the perception of weight due to **acceleration**. We feel acceleration, not speed. When you are sitting in your seat in a car going 60 mph you aren’t being pressed back into your seat, you only feel that when you are accelerating to that speed. Once something is moving at a steady speed it won’t experience any g-force other than the acceleration of gravity.
The gravity of Earth extends out into space more than many people realize; at the altitude of the international space station there is about 90% of the gravity experienced at the surface. However since both the ISS structure and everything in it are falling around Earth at the same speed they experience “micro-gravity” where they can float around in relation to each other.
So for the rockets they only accelerate at a maximum of 3 G’s of force. How fast they end up going just depends on how long they hold this acceleration, so they can end up going 22 times the speed of sound while only experiencing 3 G’s during the acceleration to that point. Afterwards once they stop thrusting they don’t experience any G-forces while going that speed.
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