I have many questions....

Lately I've had an urge to want to know things....and today me and a couple guys had questions we wondered about.

1. What causes gravity?

2. What does mass have to do with gravity?

3. What does Earth's magnetic field do?

4. Is there an inner magnet(core) in the Earth?

5. If there Earth stopped spinning, would we float away, or would the gravity just be less intense?

6. What causes the Earth to spin/stay spinning?

7. What causes the moon's gravity?

8. What does our atmosphere do besides contain and protect?

9. Is the ozone much like a giant pair of sunglasses for the earth?

10. Is the universe just a bunch of (+) and (-) which keeps it held together?

11. What causes an orbit?

12. Why is an orbit constant?

13. Can you create artificial gravity in space?

14. Whats the circumference of the Earth and the speed it rotates?

15. What protects the spacestations from being smashed by space debri/meteors?

16. What is lunar gravity?

Sorry if these seem like common sense questions to most of you, we just couldnt figure some out, so I told them I know some really intelligent chaps that can.

What does Earth's magnetic field do?

It protects us from all sorts of harmful cosmic rays.

If there Earth stopped spinning, would we float away, or would the gravity just be less intense?

ROFL, I love this question. What would happen if you were on a merri-go-round and it suddenly started spinning at 120rpm? That's right, you'd fly off. People seem to think earths rotation has something to do with us still staying on it. If the earth stopped spinning, it would be the exact same as if you went to one of the poles. You'd gain a tiny bit of weight.

What causes the Earth to spin/stay spinning?

Refer to Newton's 1st law: ". . . object in uniform motion tends to stay in uniform motion unless acted upon by a net external force." Since there are no external forces acting upon the earth to slow down the spin (space is frictionless), the earth will continue to spin.

What does our atmosphere do besides contain and protect?

Not much.

Why is an orbit constant?

An orbit isn't constant. Didn't you hear about MIR falling outta the sky?

Can you create artificial gravity in space?

Yes, but it is not that effective due to Corolis forces.

Whats the circumference of the Earth and the speed it rotates?

It's just over 40, 000 kilometres around at the equator, and rotates at approximately 1, 675 km/h.

What protects the spacestations from being smashed by space debri/meteors?

Very small. Space is rather large.


Sorry I've been a bit short. Those are the answers I know off the top of my head, as I'm pressed for time.

What put the earth into a spin in the first place, and why on an axis?

Originally posted by NateNute
1. What causes gravity?

That is a hard question to answer, we know that all mass has a gravitational field,
and the more mass you have in a small area the larger that gravity field grows,
but we don't really know what actually causes gravity beyond that, it could be gravitons
or super-dimensional radiation leaking through from a higher dimensional plane as
some string theorists believe or it could be something completely different.

2. What does mass have to do with gravity?

As I said, mass appears to produce gravity in a sense, the more mass you have,
especially in a small area the more intense the gravity is.

3. What does Earth's magnetic field do?

It protects life from being bombarded by cosmic radiation and the solar wind,
it also protects the atmosphere from the latter.

4. Is there an inner magnet(core) in the Earth?

In the sense of a Magnetic field, no, however it is because of the internal workings
of the Earth that a Magnetic field exists around the planet.

5. If there Earth stopped spinning, would we float away, or would the gravity just be less intense?

Neither, however the planet would become tidally locked with one side permanently
in day and the other side in permanent night.

Over time that do one of two things;
1. The planets oceanic and atmospheric flows are able to redirect the excess heat
from the day side to the night side thusly keeping the planet as habitable as it is now,
if not for a few problems associated with living in permanent day or night.
2. The Night side would slowly freeze and become arctic while the day side would become
a vast desert, while the day/night 'equator' would become the only truly habitable
place on the planet.

6. What causes the Earth to spin/stay spinning?

Well nothing causes it to spin, in the sense of a constant force, however around
4.5 billion years ago the still young Earth was hit by a Mars sized object, which consequently
created the Moon, this plus the Moons own gravitational orbit produced the spin of the Earth.

Eventually, far into the future after the Moon has escaped the Earths gravity field,
as it's moving away from us at 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) a year, the Earth will stop spinning
naturally, but by the time that happens Humanity will have spread among the stars long ago.

7. What causes the moon's gravity?

Basically, its mass.

8. What does our atmosphere do besides contain and protect?

It allows for the complex chemical processes that have given rise to most modern life.

9. Is the ozone much like a giant pair of sunglasses for the earth?

In a sense, yes, it blocks out the dangerous UV rays but not the other photonic
radiation upon which life depends.

10. Is the universe just a bunch of (+) and (-) which keeps it held together?

The Universe is far to complex to explain in binary terms.
The Universe is an ever expanding (at an increasing rate) entity, the galaxies and
such are held together by dark matter, the Universe may in itself be held together
by dark energy in some way.

On the smallest level all Baryonic matter, that is the small percent of the Universe that
makes up the stars, planets and everything else we consider matter, is held together
by Gluon's on the quantum scale.

11. What causes an orbit?

An object of less mass being pulled into the gravitational field of a more massive object,
essentially it is the slow 'falling' of the object into the larger body, or a slow decaying orbit,
however there are other kinds of orbiting as well, like the Moon which, as I mentioned
above is in an escape orbit, there are also binary systems in which two objects that
are near enough to equal mass orbit around a barycenter in the space between them.

12. Why is an orbit constant?

In the long run, without outside measures taken, the only true constant orbit is a
very near equal binary orbit.

Otherwise over time the object either falls into the larger object or eventually
escapes its gravitational field if it itself is large enough.

13. Can you create artificial gravity in space?

Yes and no, you can not re-create true gravity in space without a large amount of
matter compressed into a small area.

However the affects of gravity can be reproduced via the Coriolis effect by spinning the
object you are in.

15. What protects the spacestations from being smashed by space debri/meteors?

Kevlar and other protective material, that and orbital adjustment to avoid collision with things.

16. What is lunar gravity?

The gravity felt on the Moon, roughly 1/3 of Earth Standard gravity.

Sorry if these seem like common sense questions to most of you, we just couldnt figure some out, so I told them I know some really intelligent chaps that can.

Actually most of those are things the majority of people most likely would'nt
know off the top of their head.

Of course even we have to look things up occasionally, for instance I did'nt know
the speed of the Earth's rotation, but since WTR knew it or looked it up and posted it
I do now, though I'll probably forget it.

[edit on 8/29/2007 by iori_komei]