So any gravitational field will have a gradient, no? But an accelerating object does not experience any gradient of force. So you should be able to tell if you are in gravity or accelerating by measurement. Right? Is it even possible to experience constant gravity?
Asked
Active
Viewed 26 times
0
Qmechanic
- 201,751
-
1Does this answer your question? Is the lay explanation of the equivalence principle wrong? – John Rennie Aug 05 '23 at 14:29
-
1"any gravitational field will have a gradient, no?". No. A constant and uniform gravitational field, by definition, does not change in space or time. This may not be physically realistic, but the equivalence principle is not restricted to physically realistic gravitational fields. – gandalf61 Aug 05 '23 at 14:32
-
Apply some force in the opposite direction to the apparent acceleration. If you feel the latter is changing then it was a true acceleration, if not it was gravity. – Thomas Aug 05 '23 at 18:05