Question

Before, you may have had a simple notion of gravity in your head: "gravity makes things fall" or something to that effect. Part of the objective of this class was to show you that this statement is not the whole story.

a) If you take "fall" to mean "move downward," this is definitely not true. Give an example when gravity is the only force acting on an object, and yet the object does not move downward.

b) If you take "fall" to mean "accelerate downward," then if gravity is the only force on the object, the object's center of mass will fall. However, even then, not all parts of the object have to fall. Give an example of an object for which the only external force is gravity, but still not every part of the object is accelerating downward.

Answer 1