Why is it that when something pushes/pulls on me, I feel acceleration, but I don’t feel acceleration from the earth’s gravity? I feel a force pushing upward on me, but I don’t feel a downward force.
In: Physics
If you accelerate in a car, say, the force is purely external. You can feel that in all sorts of ways – from the compression of your overall body, to the movements of the particles in the canals of your inner ears. The same is true when you, say stand up – gravity is pulling you down, but the ground is exerting an external force cancelling that out. And you can feel that force because it changes your body.
If you accelerate purely under gravity, the force isn’t external. Every single atom in your body is being accelerated, and to the same degree. Basically – nothing about your body is changing. There’s nothing to sense.
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