• pikmeir@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    For anyone wondering it’s because the bowling ball slightly pulls the earth faster toward itself. This amount is too small to possibly measure. But imagine if the bowling ball were the size of another Earth and it’s easier to see why it happens.

    • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      This amount is too small to possibly measure

      What the fuck did you say to me you little bitch? I’m going to go get $300 million in funding to create a device so complex and so sensitive that a butterfly sneezing 30 miles away will fuck it up and then I’m going to directly measure the the acceleration of the earth as a result of the mass of that bowling ball. You fucked up, kiddo.

      • Average metrologist, probably
      • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        The issue isn’t so much the sensitivity (although that is a significant issue), it’s all the other crap going on. You’ll probably be able to filter out the Mains Hum, but every anything moving in the same axis as the test will confount the data.

        I’m thinking we might set up the instuments near counterweight energy storage or pumped hydro, and some on the exact opposite side of the planet, and try to measure the movement of the earth that way.

        We can already see a change in the length of a day after big earthquakes and dam construction/destruction, but I don’t think the acceleration has ever been measured directly.

    • KazuchijouNo@lemy.lol
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      1 month ago

      But being more massive means that due to inertia the ball will take just a tiny little wee bit longer to start moving no? So they end up falling at the same time.

      Also, are these Newtonian mechanics? How do they compare to relativity at the “bowling ball and feather” scale?

      Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. It’s been a while since I read anything physics-related.

      • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website
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        1 month ago

        The above is just referring to the fact that the standard “feather vs. bowling ball” question assumes the earth/moon/ground is immovable. In that case, Newton says they fall the same.

        The fact that the ground is not immovable is what’s being referenced — in this picture, things don’t “fall,” they are each accelerated towards each other.