Eli5 Why do astronauts start spinning around in space when they let go of anything?
In: Physics
Statistically speaking, they’re going to have a little bit of rotation going on all the time. When holding on, they’re more or less hovering around the same spot. When they let go, those small amounts of motion continue to carry them to rotate in the same direction.
Newton’s first law of motion: an object either remains at rest or **continues to move at a constant velocity**, unless acted upon by a force.
They only spin around when they twist before releasing to make themselves spin. If they just let go, they hover in place.
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