What if Earth Lost Gravity for 5 Seconds?
Every object, living or non-living has a weight. This weight in scientific terms is also referred to as the “mass of an object”. Gravity is the natural phenomenon of objects being pulled towards the surface because of their inherent mass. The heavier an object weighs, the stronger the gravitational pull.
Gravity is responsible for more than just keeping things planted on the surface. Gravity is what gives you weight. It is responsible for planets revolving around the sun in an orbit. Curious how?
The Sun has a gravitational pull that could draw about 1.3 million Earths towards itself. Similarly, Earth has its own gravitational pull that keeps it from getting pulled into the sun. The gravitational pull from both ends keeps the earth revolving in a planetary orbit around the sun.
Even the moon revolves around the earth due to same reason. Gravity is therefore the cause for the tidal waves that we enjoy on a beach. Likewise, it is also responsible for many intricacies in the way things function, both on earth and in the universe.
Wonder what would happen if the earth lost gravity for just 5 seconds?
5 Second Gravity Absence
Since gravity is responsible for the weight of every object, once gravitational pull stops, everything will become weightless. Sounds fun? Well fascinating as the idea sounds, it wouldn’t be as fun to experience in reality. Once everything loses its mass, the first evident effect will be objects floating in the air. Humans, cars, buildings, animals — everything mid-air! Similar to the astronauts we’ve seen in space movies, everything will float.
Once everything starts floating, we’ll lose control over the speed, movement and direction of objects. This simply means, just like a tumbleweed that rolls in any direction, we’ll end up floating and colliding with objects mid-air.
This is just one of the many effects. As every object will be out of balance for those 5 seconds, the earth’s atmosphere will start to disappear, its core will expand with the heat of the sun, the surface of the earth will begin to crack, tidal waves will soar high and other sudden changes will start coming to life. Basically, a Michael Bay movie turning into reality.
This was all about our surroundings. Wonder what would happen to humans? We will lose our sense of orientation temporarily, our arms and legs will feel disconnected. Since we won’t have body mass, muscles, bones and cardiovascular activities will weaken. The weightlessness and the radiation will additionally impact our vascular system too. That’s exactly why astronauts who travel back from space suffer from bone-related and cardiovascular problems.
To add to it, the Earth itself will drift away into space in those 5 seconds.
By some miracle, if everyone still survives these 5 seconds, the after-effects of this event will come with a different set of challenges. Due to the sudden expansion and contraction of the earth’s core, continents around the earth will experience massive earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and other natural disasters. Not to forget the astronomical devastation that will take place.
It’s good our curiosity allows us to conduct such thought experiments. If such an event were to occur for real, most of humanity might not survive to witness the proverbial calm after the storm.
Keep an eye out for Curiosity Hub; a space dedicated to tickle your curious minds.
