Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Now from knowing what happens when you hit the gas in a car and it throws you back into the seat. Now with the car moving forward, does create its own gravity to make you feel the Gs that you do. Or is it the earth doing it with its gravity still.?

Next part is that what if you were in a space ship in space with nothing really around you and you hit the gas on that ship what would you feel? Any force moving to the the seat or something.

I think in both of them that it is the car at first that making the force for the people riding in it and the same with the being in the ship but if I'm wrong please tell me. Thanks.

racer0018 - The experience you feel when you push the gas petal in a car is acceleration, and it's effect is often measured in units of gravitational force, just as you feel the force of gravity as weight as you stand on the earth. The force of gravity is expressed as a measure of acceleration and is approximately 32 feet per second, per second (32'/sec/sec). If you step off a ladder, your body will accelerate to the ground at this rate. When your car reaches a constant velocity, there is no further sense of G force as there is no further acceleration. In your example of a car on a level road, you experience the forces of acceleration produced by the motor and drive train, plus the constant force of acceleration produced by the earth's mass (gravity).

The same effect of forces would be felt in a space craft that accelerates or decelerates, but there is an absence of gravitational attraction we experience on earth.

Rick Marz