Apologies, referring to the drift, I felt it was safe to assume you'd measure the force between the components. Not necessarily the distances. My point is tha

Apologies, referring to the drift, I felt it was safe to assume you'd measure the force between the components. Not necessarily the distances. My point is that to an earth bound observer, something in free fall to the surface of the earth is accelerating faster to earth until they hit terminal velocity. This is despite the accelerometer on the falling body showing zero. Note that i don't think this adds any understanding to whether or not gravity is a force. But it does feel a lot like saying that, if you are in a river and able to stay still, that you aren't fighting the force of the river. Similarly, do we say that people standing on a moving sidewalk are stationary in the same way as someone standing on the sidewalk they are passing?