If I attach the same engine to a 1,000 kg spacecraft and a 10,000 kg spacecraft in orbit, the 1,000 kg spacecraft will accelerate more quickly. If I drop a 1 kg rock and a 10 kg rock on the moon, they accelerate at the same rate. What is the difference?
I think what I may be asking is “why is gravity the a and not the f in f=ma.”
EDIT: BY all means please feel free to discuss, but I consider the question answered by u/mmmmmmBacon12345
mmmmmmm….. Bacon…..
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Look at it this way. What would you have to do to the engine to make the 10,000 kg and 1,000 kg orbital masses accellerate at the same rate in space, say at 9.8 m/s^2 ? You would reduce the thrust for the smaller mass, or increase thrust for the larger mass, so that each object experiences exactly the forces needed (the same forces that Earth’s gravity would exert on each of them) to achieve 9.8 m/s^2 acceleration.
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