A story about gravity. A little bit of pure science, but with profound implications for everyday life I…

A story about gravity. A little bit of pure science, but with profound implications for everyday life I think. And joy, which true knowledge brings. Nothing restricts a person’s life more, in my view, than a misunderstanding of gravity. And that misunderstanding is endemic. /1 https://t.co/1i2tqTS9uk

Astronauts doing this in orbit are nearly always described as being ‘weightless’, in ‘zero gravity’. Neither of those things is even remotely true. Gravity in orbit is about the same as it is on the ground. And your weight in orbit is about the same as it is on the ground. /2 https://t.co/7Y2ATWFjTc

These astronauts are just falling. Like you do right here on Earth, if you jump off a building or out of a plane. The reason it looks like they’re floating inside that space station, is that the space station is falling too, at the same rate. So they don’t ‘land’ on the floor. /3 https://t.co/waf1Xe1Zc3

You get the same golly gosh when they play with water in ‘zero gravity’, it just floats there in drops! No it doesn’t. It’s falling, like they are. Water falls in drops. It’s what rain does, here on Earth. The whoa response is because we’re misunderstanding what we’re seeing. /4 https://t.co/lDyX3j66fT

When we see pictures like this, we imagine how cool it must be to be able to float like that. But you already are, here on the ground. All that’s different is that you’re resting on the ground, as you float. Again, the gravity on you is about the same as these astronauts. /5 https://t.co/jKeew1gGHF

They’re not feeling any weight. You may be, but not because of ‘gravity’. One of the greatest myths of being alive I think, is that contact with the ground then means you’re being pulled down, by gravity. That’s how we’re all taught it. We feel heavy. /6 https://t.co/Epp4KXj0TP

Like it takes effort to act against gravity, to move upwards in any way. Reinforced by everyday experiences like falls, where we ‘fall down’. Actually one of our biggest killers, and even Presidents aren’t immune. But again the astronauts are experiencing the same gravity. /7 https://t.co/zaOY9hw1Bb

They don’t feel heavy at all. The big smiles tell you that. Our (mis)perception of gravity as a pulling-down force only happens on the ground. Why is that? Well, to be clear, the force is pulling you in that direction. BUT, a huge but, alone that causes no feeling of weight. /8 https://t.co/eIs2nd43TO

The astronauts can tell you that. Only when on the ground do people suddenly feel weight. And that’s *not* because they’re in gravity, and astronauts aren’t. We know that’s false. Here’s something about the ground many don’t know. It pushes you UP. /9 https://t.co/hKrWQ9Nx7b

So many feel that contact with the ground as their ‘weight’ pressing down, on the ground. But that’s not what that contact feeling means. The contact feeling is the *balancing* of your weight, and the ground reaction force. That’s why you just stand or sit there, not moving. /10 https://t.co/WM4Bo4abD9

Your weight caused by your mass and gravity, is exactly balanced by the ground reaction force. By the Earth pushing UP, into you. Meaning there is no net pulling. You’re in contact with the ground, but it isn’t (in net terms) pulling you down. /11

You’re floating on the surface of the Earth a little like a boat floats on water, with the upwards buoyancy of the water holding the boat at the surface, balancing the downward force of the boat’s mass. How that feels is different to astronauts, but not in the way we think. /12

We’re not weighted, and they’re weightless. We’re both equally weighted. People who feel ‘weight’ on the ground are just out of balance. Like Joe Biden falling. They move off the upwards support of the ground, by tripping or leaning, and suddenly they ‘fall’. /13

But before they fall, they feel no weight. All the way to the ground as they fall, they feel no weight. When they hit the ground and lay there, they feel no weight. That feeling of ‘weight’ is purely about being off-balance, while on a supporting surface. /14

Take a classic example, ‘getting up out of a chair’. While on the chair you’re supported by the ground, so if you’re balanced, should feel no weight. But between sitting and standing, nearly everybody strains, they feel weight, as they (they think) haul themselves upright. /15 https://t.co/9PnBsTJ6VB

Lugging their weight up, against gravity. But if you stand a little like this lady, where you shift your mass from your bum as the supporting surface, to your feet as a new supporting surface before you stand, you will feel no weight at all. No effort. /16 https://t.co/vjrdatSpdL

It’s fascinating how the language betrays the misunderstanding too. ‘Sitting down’. But you were already on the ground, your feet don’t move. if you stay over the support of your feet when sitting, your body only changes shape. You feel no ‘weight’ falling into the chair. /17

Feelings of weight are always somebody trying to get to another supporting surface, from inside the supporting surface they’re already on. Dragging themselves from bum to feet, without transferring their body over their feet first. And vice versa. /18

Life is a blissfully free, light experience, when you understand gravity. That contact with the planet under your feet stops feeling like your dead weight pressing down, and feels like what it actually is. You floating, but the Earth coming up underneath you. /19

Both you and astronauts are ‘floating’, but they’re falling, and you’re more like a boat. Try that reframing, which is actually real, not an analogy. You’re as free as those astronauts, but in a different way. A different kid of floating. /20

It’s not just a metaphor to say understanding this removes ‘the weight of the world’ from you. You will feel no weight at all, once you get this, and practice it in everyday life. it’s probably the most liberating experience I can imagine. Understanding always sets you free. /end