Out of Pure Curiosity – Gravity Compared by Dropping Apples on Planets
When I was in school, I used to immerse myself in wonders of physics and mathematics. It is time-forgetting experience to learn how the world around us works, from the rule of nature to daily commodities such as bulbs and telephones.
This infographic brings you the ‘pure curiosity’, showing gravity compared on the sun, the moon and nine planets. Going back to the father of gravity, suppose we dropped an apple from a high place, in this case, the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa. Burj Khalifa is 828 meters tall. I use the gravity data from Surface Gravity of the Planets and the Sun on Smart Conversation. So, how long would it take for the apple to touch the ground?
We Know the Gravity of the Earth, Then How Do We Go About It?
As widely known, the gravity of the Earth is about 9.8 m/s². The formula I use to work out the time taken is:
, where t is time, s is distance, and a is acceleration.
This gives that it would take 12.999… ≈ 13 seconds for the apple to hit the ground on the Earth.
Similarly, using the formula above, the results are the following:
- The Sun – 2.5 seconds
- The Jupiter – 8.2 seconds
- The Neptune – 12.2 seconds
- The Saturn – 12.6 seconds
- The Earth – 13 seconds
- The Venus – 13.7 seconds
- The Uranus – 13.8 seconds
- The Mars – 21.1 seconds
- The Mercury – 21.2 seconds
- The Moon – 32 seconds
- The Pluto – 51.7 seconds
Isn’t this fascinating, that the same object works differently, depending on where it is?
Forgot How to Solve the Algebra?
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