I think the false association in this context is the following: space --> weightlessness Thinking this makes people look for "alternate" explanations, li

I think the false association in this context is the following: space --> weightlessness Thinking this makes people look for "alternate" explanations, like the weight of the boots, etc. People who have not been trained in physics often have a different "intuition" about the laws of physics. An interesting effort to qualify these "physics misconceptions" is the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) questionnaire[1], which which asks students to answer some basic qualitative problems from Newtonian mechanics. You should try it and see how you fare... Interestingly, researchers have found that even after taking a Newtonian mechanics class, many students still hold on to their misconceptions---their score on the FCI is only slightly improved... [1] http://prst-per.aps.org/multimedia/PRSTPER/v3/i1/e010102/e010102_app.pdf http://prst-per.aps.org/multimedia/PRSTPER/v3/i1/e010102/e01...