Replacement for silly terms like "zero gravity" or "microgravity" that are currently used to describe free fall.
In free fall, gravity does still act on the falling mass, but it is not balanced by the normal force. That is why no weight is felt: nothing opposes the mass's tendency to fall, and thus the mass accelerates with calculable gravitational acceleration (~9.8 m/s^2).
In free fall, gravity does still act on the falling mass, but it is not balanced by the normal force. That is why no weight is felt: nothing opposes the mass's tendency to fall, and thus the mass accelerates with calculable gravitational acceleration (~9.8 m/s^2).
by Domenic Denicola March 30, 2005