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Why aren't people at the South Pole upside down?

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    SystemSystem Posts: 2,096,970
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    imno12u wrote:
    The reason we normlly feel upside down is because the earth's gratitational field pulls our organs in the opposite direction to what they are used to. If your on the other side of the world the same force is pulling you in the same direction.
    To 'dangle' downwards you need the gravitational force acting on you to pull you from toe to head and as the gravitational pull comes from the centre of the planet nobody is being pulled from other ways.

    Thank you for your explanation :)
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    FalkirkJimFalkirkJim Posts: 1,395
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    the southern hemisphere brain is located in the feet.

    Having spoken to some australians..........

    ;)
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    SystemSystem Posts: 2,096,970
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    Patatolegs, how long Did take you to dream this question up ?
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,421
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    say for instance you are in a space ship. if you are flying below the earth at what point if you are about to enter the atmosphere does the ground become below you? :confused: hope that makes sense.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 7,425
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    raptorz wrote:
    say for instance you are in a space ship. if you are flying below the earth at what point if you are about to enter the atmosphere does the ground become below you? :confused: hope that makes sense.
    well, the ground is the earth so as long as you are in the Earth's atmosphere I guess it is below you.
    I don't want to confuse this more but if you were in a flying saucer beneath the earth wouldn't you technically be upside-down if you decided to fly closer to the earth's surface.?
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 19,538
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    raptorz wrote:
    say for instance you are in a space ship. if you are flying below the earth at what point if you are about to enter the atmosphere does the ground become below you? :confused: hope that makes sense.
    Well you'd make sure you flew in at the right angle wouldnt you :D When you are in a spaceship there is no up/down!
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    SystemSystem Posts: 2,096,970
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    raptorz wrote:
    say for instance you are in a space ship. if you are flying below the earth at what point if you are about to enter the atmosphere does the ground become below you? :confused: hope that makes sense.


    That completely makes sense to me, but it makes it even more confusing.

    Hancock --- Ooooh lol, still going on about the dream one :D
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,421
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    so if you went in at the wrong angle would you die? for example if you went directly 'up' in a flying saucer then you would be upside down surely? :confused: you would need to flip wouldnt you so that you land the right way up?

    i probably sound really thick but it is just one of the things which always confuses me :)
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 19,538
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    raptorz wrote:
    so if you went in at the wrong angle would you die? for example if you went directly 'up' in a flying saucer then you would be upside down surely? :confused: you would need to flip wouldnt you so that you land the right way up?

    i probably sound really thick but it is just one of the things which always confuses me :)
    Yeah, well, sort of. As you'll be in free fall all the way to the earth you will still not feel any gravity..just the locality of the spaceships interior will feel upside down to you to the rest of the earth..but still to you there is no up or down feeling..apart from what you perceive with your eyes. As soon as you exit free fall though (like crashing into the water) you'll feel which way is up or down!

    Most of this is just down to visual perception. If you had your eyes closed the whole time you wouldnt really notice any difference if you landed in the south or north pole..
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,421
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    Exulus wrote:
    Yeah, well, sort of. As you'll be in free fall all the way to the earth you will still not feel any gravity..just the locality of the spaceships interior will feel upside down to you to the rest of the earth..but still to you there is no up or down feeling..apart from what you perceive with your eyes. As soon as you exit free fall though (like crashing into the water) you'll feel which way is up or down!

    Most of this is just down to visual perception. If you had your eyes closed the whole time you wouldnt really notice any difference if you landed in the south or north pole..

    thanks that kind of helps me try to understand. still confused me though :(
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    planetnokiaplanetnokia Posts: 15,023
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    potatolegs wrote:
    I know this question has been asked loads and loads.

    But how come??

    Just imagine the Earth is a football for a second and an ant is crawling at the bottom end of the ball, (same place where the South Pole is), the ant would clearly be sticking to the bottom with its legs, and would appear upside down.
    Well it wouldn't just appear IT WOULD be upside down.

    How come say you went to the South Pole you wouldnt feel upside down?

    An interesting question for sure. But more interestingly, why after you have been sucking an extra strong mint does water taste as if it is freezing cold?
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    SystemSystem Posts: 2,096,970
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    An interesting question for sure. But more interestingly, why after you have been sucking an extra strong mint does water taste as if it is freezing cold?

    I know, its strange aint it, and when you breath in, its all cold too!!
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 9,121
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    An interesting question for sure. But more interestingly, why after you have been sucking an extra strong mint does water taste as if it is freezing cold?

    Now that is just Magic :)
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    swingalegswingaleg Posts: 103,127
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    If there's no up and down in space how come that when ships materialise off the starboard bow they're always the same way 'up' as Enterprise...............I mean they never hail them and see the alien upside down.


    ;)
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    timeytimey Posts: 19,379
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    swingaleg wrote:
    If there's no up and down in space how come that when ships materialise off the starboard bow they're always the same way 'up' as Enterprise...............I mean they never hail them and see the alien upside down.


    ;)
    That's funny, I was thinking that very same thing the other day. Also, when SF progs have ships approaching Earth, they always see the Earth with the North at the top (and the USA in full view of course). This definitely doesn't happen in real life. I remember seeing an Apollo pic at the time and Australia was at the top.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 719
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    How do we know that the North isn't actually the bottom ?
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    swingalegswingaleg Posts: 103,127
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    That's funny, I was thinking that very same thing the other day. Also, when SF progs have ships approaching Earth, they always see the Earth with the North at the top (and the USA in full view of course). This definitely doesn't happen in real life. I remember seeing an Apollo pic at the time and Australia was at the top.


    Another one was in the opening credits of 'Voyager' where it banks to go round a planet like a motorbike going round a roundabout........... :D
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    SULLASULLA Posts: 149,789
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    I once read that the earth spins at about 1,000 mile per hour. If I jump up in the air, why don't I land in a different place. :confused:

    Some of these weightlifters can easily lift their own weight. If they stand in a bucket, why can't they lift themselves up. ( an aluminium bucket of course) :confused:
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    swingalegswingaleg Posts: 103,127
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    SULLA wrote:
    I once read that the earth spins at about 1,000 mile per hour. If I jump up in the air, why don't I land in a different place. :confused:


    On the equator it spins at 1000 miles an hour


    When you jump up you're already going 'forward' at 1000 mph because you're travelling at the same speed as the earth surface. So your jump describes a parabola, it's not straight up and down...........


    Imagine you're sitting on a train with an orange and you throw it up and catch it. To you the orange has gone 'up' a foot and 'down' a foot and it lands in your hands. But to someone on the platform watching as the train speeds through it will look as though the orange has gone 'up' a foot, 'along' for ten feet (the distance the train travels while the orange is in the air ), then 'down' a foot...........a curved trajectory
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    Doctor_WibbleDoctor_Wibble Posts: 26,580
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    SULLA wrote:
    If I jump up in the air, why don't I land in a different place.
    Ah, but you do! It's just cunningly disguised to *look* the same. None of this crackpot-theory parabola nonsense that people try to fool us with.
    SULLA wrote:
    If they stand in a bucket, why can't they lift themselves up.
    Never quite been able to figure this one out. However, if they were standing at the south pole they would in fact be able to lift themselves *down*. But it's too cold there so nobody has ever actually tried this.

    My turn for a question : if there's no 'up' or 'down' in space, how does anyone do a loop-the-loop?
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,006
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    Best not fall up the stairs then!
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    JJ2005JJ2005 Posts: 5,188
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    If someone suddenly switched off gravity we would all fly off into space due to the centrifugal force of the earth's rotation. :eek:

    And this is not necessarily impossible.

    There are four fundamental forces in nature; The strong nuclear force; the weak nuclear force; the electromagnetic force; and gravity.

    There are many things about gravity that we do not understand, one of which is why gravity is so vastly weaker than it should be according to most theories and compared to the other three forces. It is believed that gravity might be either a force leaking into our universe from parallel universes, or most of its power is leaking from our universe into parallel universes.

    If these universes suddenly cease to exist, then gravity will either disappear and we will all fly off into space, or it will suddenly increase by an enormous amount and the earth will collapse into itself, taking us with it. :eek:

    The one advantage of the latter event is that we would then be able to walk to Australia in a few minutes instead of taking 22 hours to fly there. The disadvantage is that we would be compressed into a tiny space and we would be no bigger than an amoeba. But that is how we started out billions of years ago so maybe that is how God has determined our fate. There is a certain satisfaction in humanity completing full circle like that.

    I'm a bit pissed so there might be some minor flaws of logic in this post. :D
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    metafismetafis Posts: 11,292
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    The centrifugal force is negligable. (takes 24 hours to complete a full circle, the outward force is hardly anything).What would happen if the earth suddenly stopped spinning , would be you just get flung in a horizontal direction, due to the speed of forward motion, rather than out into space due to centrifugal motion.
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    metafismetafis Posts: 11,292
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    SULLA wrote:
    I once read that the earth spins at about 1,000 mile per hour. If I jump up in the air, why don't I land in a different place. :confused:

    Some of these weightlifters can easily lift their own weight. If they stand in a bucket, why can't they lift themselves up. ( an aluminium bucket of course) :confused:
    Because the force they exert is counteracted by the force of their body pushing downwards. Newtons law of motion I think.

    When they lift a weight, theirr feet are pushing on the ground with the same force, not pushing on the weight. in a bucket, their feet are pushing down on the bucket with the same force.

    try this
    sit in a chair, with your feet off the ground.
    Grip the chair by the seat and try to lift, youll be aware of your bottom pushing down on the chair with the same force you are using to try to lift it.
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    padpad Posts: 6,699
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    My turn for a question : if there's no 'up' or 'down' in space, how does anyone do a loop-the-loop?

    Because there is up and down in space, it's just different to the up and down on earth.

    Up and down on earth are relative to the centre of the earth, because we use the gravitational force towards the centre of the earth to define down.

    We don't have a problem with the perception of down changing because even when the human body is inverted, the force of gravity still pulls us to the ground so there is a force in a fixed direction we associate with "Down".

    There is no such force in space, so the perception of down can change, and in fact there can be several perceptions of down. If you are floating in space between the earth and the moon you might have three perceptions of down, down to the earth, down to the moon, and whatever is in the direction of your your feet.

    So what you have to do in space is fix up and down before you do anything. The direction of a loop-the-loop in space is determined by the orientation of the spacecraft at the moment the loop-the-loop starts. At that moment you state that "Up" is space above the cockpit and "Down" is the space below the hull then you have fixed up and down relative to that starting point and orienataion in space.

    Once you know your starting point in space and the direction of up and down at the starting point you can determine the path of your loop-the-loop.
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