Quote:
Originally Posted by cybermike
Something always bothered me about that Heavy Boots story. He protested that the pen would fall, only slower. This too is incorrect. You can youtube "Apollo 15 hammer and Feather" if you want to see the proof that they both fall at the same time because there's no resistance, only gravity.
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No, it would fall slower
than it would fall on the earth. The question doesn't ask whether it would fall faster than a feather or slower than a brick. Since it's vacuum, they'd all fall at the same rate--but it would be slower than they'd fall on Earth.
Gravity is a direct function of mass. The earth "pulls" at 9.81m/s^2, which is how fast an object accelerates toward the earth. On the moon, the acceleration of gravity is
1.6m/s^2, or 1/6 that of the earth. So the pen would take six times as long to fall the same distance as it would on the earth.
...Also, boo on Texas. They think barbecue is
beef, of all things.