• pikmeir@lemmy.world
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    5 months 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.

    • KazuchijouNo@lemy.lol
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      5 months 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.

        • KazuchijouNo@lemy.lol
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          5 months ago

          Oh yes! I omitted that part, but what I meant to say is that mass and inertia balance each other, so that in the end the acceleration from gravity ends up the same for any object.

          • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
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            5 months ago

            The bowling ball will still pull the Earth more. For us, everything accelerates at 9.8m/s² (because we all fall to the same Earth), but the Earth accelerates differently per attracting object.

      • bort@sopuli.xyz
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        5 months ago

        because of two bodies can not occupy the same space, the feather and the ball will be in different position when you drop them. And therefor gravitation will pull the earth slightly more toward the ball and slightly less toward the feather.