> So if I jump out of an aeroplane, I don't accelerate towards the ground? In a very real sense (although not a useful one for a skydiver), the answer is yes.

> So if I jump out of an aeroplane, I don't accelerate towards the ground? In a very real sense (although not a useful one for a skydiver), the answer is yes. This is a key insight of the Equivalence Principle and the curved-spacetime view of gravity. You (in free-fall) are on an inertial "straight line" path through spacetime towards the center of the Earth. When you reach the ground, it pushes on you, messily accelerating you off of that path.