How old were you when you realized objects don't actually all fall at the same rate, and your physics teachers have just been parroting outdated theories from the middle ages?
>>24746985
Are you OK, OP?original comment
It can be mathematically calculated by the theory of gravity. Don't know what you're on about
12ish, I read maddox's "Operation Penny Drop" post and learned from it that surface area to mass ratio matters a lot
I'm sure there's an answer.
It should say "all objects are attracted to earth at the same rate, not that they fall at the same rate universally.
Isn't it possible that Jupiter closes in on Earth at 9.8 m/s while Earth falls into Jupiter at a rate of 24.5 m/s?
That's a grossly simple conclusion to jump to, but the point stands that they could just be attracted to each other at different speeds, colliding at a point that is closer to Jupiter's starting point than Earth's. DeeDee's question doesn't break physics or anything.
And it took me that whole post to realize that was the joke. I think.
>>24746985
lol yea dum fysicsposters always shitposting irl about gravitaional speed or something.
>>24747592
This. Sure OP, you can admit that technically, since a feather has SOME gravitational pull, that the earth is also "falling toward" the feather at an unbelievably minuscule, impossibly small to calculate, rate, but it's not helpful.
>>24746985
>and your physics teachers have just been parroting outdated theories from the middle ages?
General Relativity is fucking hard for a middle school student.
It's natural they're going to give you an approximation.
How old were you when you realized your high school teachers didn't actually know that much about the subject they were teaching and some were only a few years older than you are now?
>an object on Earth
>an object on Jupiter
Yes, an object on Earth, i.e. at the Earth's surface, falls at ~9.8 m/s^2. Jupiter's enormous radius requires its center of gravity to be far, far away from the surface of the Earth at any time. The force could not apply that acceleration to Jupiter, but the same force applied to the Earth would (presumably) be significant. Probably not 24.5 m/s^2, since the Earth's radius also sets it further from the surface of Jupiter than the objects we usually think of and I don't think it's negligible, but I'm not an expert on this.
>>24747707
They don't need to know much, they just need to be able to teach it well.
