Physics

Explain on Weightlessness

Television pictures and photographs show astronauts and objects floating in satellites orbiting the Earth. This apparent weightlessness is sometimes explained wrongly as zero-gravity condition.

Consider the astronaut standing on the ground. He exerts a force (his weight) on the ground. At the same time, the ground exerts an equal and opposite force of reaction on the astronaut. Due to this force of reaction, he has a feeling of weight.

When the astronaut is in an orbiting satellite, both the satellite and astronaut have the same acceleration towards the centre of the Earth. Hence, the astronaut does not exert any force on the floor of the satellite. So, the floor of the satellite also does not exert any force of reaction on the astronaut. As there is no reaction, the astronaut has a feeling of weightlessness.