3 ms·
Still not convinced. The plane is both carrying you tangentially to the Earth surface (to simplify) and sustaining you against gravity. If a turbulence just mak
by darkwater 2y ago
Still not convinced. The plane is both carrying you tangentially to the Earth surface (to simplify) and sustaining you against gravity. If a turbulence just makes disappear the sustain against gravity, the wings, the fuselage and everything inside will start free-falling at the same time, effectively being a reduced gravity system. This is what happens in the ISS and there is actually a NASA aircraft (Vomit Comet [1]) that does that on purpose.
OTOH if the aircraft suddenly goes down faster than 1G, let's say 2G, and you are not tied to anything, you will experience a 1G acceleration towards the roof, because you are "just" falling at 1G.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced-gravity_aircraft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced-gravity_aircraft
- xenadu02 2y agoWe covered this in the other thread but to give a simple summary: It is not purely a reduction in lift causing the aircraft to begin free falling. Different air masses can move in different directions, including downwards or in a circular motion. When the velocity of the air is high enough it can easily push the airplane down faster than free-fall otherwise would.