Faster than the speed of gravity...I don't think so.

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paige1217

New Member
musketeer said:
ummm...no, it's not. As everyone above responded to my original post, the speed of gravity (the speed of gravity's influence) is the speed of light.

I understand what they were getting at now, what is meant is not the SPEED of gravity, but the ACCELERATION due to gravity.

Gravity accelerates you at 32.174 ft / sec / sec, so in this attraction, if it is 1.3x that as stated above, then you accelerate at 1.3 x 32.174 ft / sec / sec.

But it isn't all that specatular, because lots of roller coasters accelerate you downwards at a higher rate than gravity would during hills that push you up in your seat ( and you don't even need to be going down to feel it )
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I was under the impression there would be no math on this forum
 
M

musketeer

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well since every one is whipping theirs out...as the original poster of this, i'll do the same. I have Aerospace AND Mechanical Engineering degrees.
 
ZapperZ

ZapperZ

Well-Known Member
Montyboy said:
How did we do?
I think I have a pretty good handle on physics, but I did have to look up the units on G...
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Most of you did very well, I think.

The phrase "speed of gravity" certainly was used to mean something different than the literal interpretation of the phrase. I noticed this as well when I first encountered it and just simply laughed it off since I kinda know what they were trying to say. They definitely meant that the downward acceleration being larger than g since the elevator is being pulled down in addition to being acted on by gravitational force.

I look at this as being in the same vein as when I hear news reporters on TV misuse the phrase "rate of speed" when they actually simply mean "speed". :)

Zz.
 
Monty

Monty

Brilliant...and Canadian
In the Parks
No
As was explained to me by a multi-PHD mathematician: Loads of people do math, few know math...

Gravity does not have a 'speed'. Gravity is a force that is relative to the mass of any given object. The larger the mass of an object, the more its gravitational pull affects other objects in its proximity. All objects, large or small have gravitational affect on other objects within their realm of influence.

I am neither a physicist nor an engineer. In fact, I didn't graduate High School. :shrug:
 
W

WDW Monorail

Well-Known Member
Phonedave said:
Oooo, thems fighting words. In college the ME's would go into a lab and do some flow rate deal, or work with small materials samples. All clean and dainty. Then they would see us come out of lab in work boots and hard hats after playing with the the gantry crane, cement mixers, and environmental chambers.

ME's did have a better group of "soft personnel" though :animwink:

-dave
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That's what is pulling me toward Civil but for now I think I'm sticking to ChemE.



MontyMon said:
As was explained to me by a multi-PHD mathematician: Loads of people do math, few know math...

Gravity does not have a 'speed'. Gravity is a force that is relative to the mass of any given object. The larger the mass of an object, the more its gravitational pull affects other objects in its proximity. All objects, large or small have gravitational affect on other objects within their realm of influence.

I am neither a physicist nor an engineer. In fact, I didn't graduate High School. :shrug:
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Very good point.

Fg = [(m1)(m2)] / d^2
 
sarabi

sarabi

New Member
Pumbas Nakasak said:
Why? Have all the pies gone missing?

I didnt think there would be enough room for his ego on the whole site.
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:sohappy: Good one!

Yeah, so I think I see the problem with this thread now. I had assumed we were talking about gravity the acceleration (oh my god I risk spelling it wrong again!) because the ride does in fact pull you down with an acceleration greater than gravity alone. But yes, Gravity is also a Force (best capitalized when we talk about it as a force, if I remember correctly).
And then I guess there is a "speed of gravity" which is the speed at which it propogates, which I hadn't even considered.
But I reallly think Disney means the "rate of gravity". I don't think they expected everyone to dissect their statement in technical terms.
 
TubaGeek

TubaGeek

God bless the "Ignore" button.
musketeer said:
I saw one of the videos played on the resort channel, and when talking about the Tower of Terror, it says "faster than the speed of gravity." Not only is that not true....THAT'S NOT EVEN POSSIBLE.
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Wow, I'm really glad you started a thread to complain that one of the ads needs to be re-worded.
:hammer:
 
Montyboy

Montyboy

New Member
TubaGeek said:
Wow, I'm really glad you started a thread to complain that one of the ads needs to be re-worded.
:hammer:
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I'm glad he started the thread. "The speed of gravity" rings in my ears when I hear it.

I'll remind everyone that this is the same site that had a thread about cheese fries go for hundreds of posts.
 
D

dhoywdw20x

Member
Moustronaut said:
Fallen Angel nailed it. The cars in the elevator are pulled by cable accelerating downward faster than the normal gravity acceleration on Earth (32 ft/s^2, 9.8 m/s^2 for our metric friends). Your car accelerates just faster than Earth's gravity accelerates your butt which is why it comes out of the seat.:ROFLOL:
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That was what I was going to say, because it has to be faster than gravity for you to come out of your seat. I believe that they added seat belts later on when they added this affect, prior they had lap bars such as on Big Thunder mountain railroad.
 
TigerLily_CM

TigerLily_CM

New Member
Wow...alot of great minds have been working on this problem. I don't suppose anyone could help me with a question that's been on my mind for some time now...


exactly how much ground CAN a groundhog ground?
 
EpcoTim

EpcoTim

Well-Known Member
TigerLily_CM said:
Wow...alot of great minds have been working on this problem. I don't suppose anyone could help me with a question that's been on my mind for some time now...


exactly how much ground CAN a groundhog ground?
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Only Puxatawney Phil truly knows the answer to that.
 

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