Submitted by Effurlife13 t3_10mz2u6 in explainlikeimfive
So I'm just now learning that gravity is not a force and more of an illusion of force (I think). From what I understand, the illusion of gravity is created by the reference frame of an object and another's acceleration through space time.
For example, we would be in free fall on earth (and at times we are), but earth is moving through spacetime. We fall and stay planted to earth because is accelerating towards us. We experience this as gravity. At least I think that's how it works.
So why then, do objects fall faster toward more massive bodies? Objects fall to earth at 9.81 feet per second. On a neutron star, they'd fall at kilometers per second.
Say the neutron star and earth are moving through space at the exact same speed. If we experience gravity because earth's acceleration towards us, and that acceleration is 9.81 feet per second, shouldn't that fall speed be the same for every celestial body, so long as it's speed through spacetime is the same as earth's?
What difference would an objects mass make in this scenario? Shouldn't all that determines how fast an object falls is the body that its falling into speed through spacetime?
Also, how does this explain jumping in an opposite direction that the earth is moving to? Say, people in Australia jump "down" relative to earth accelerating "up".
RealLongwayround t1_j65zrp6 wrote
Firstly, 9.81 feet per second is a speed not an acceleration. Acceleration due to gravity is 9.81 metres per second per second. I just dropped out of a University module on relativity. What we experience as gravity is a consequence of how mass-energy curves spacetime. Objects tend to move along paths of least effort, essentially looking for the shortest path through curved space.
More massive objects curve spacetime more than less massive objects, just as a massive ball on a rubber mat curves the rubber mat more than a lightweight ball.