Question

Gravity Question
-
-
-
Say you were in a room, and gravity ON EARTH suddenly stopped, how long do you think you/we could live?
Possible explanation and/or evidence

Answer 1

Do you know the answer or you do not understand?

Answer 2

I don't completely understand, plus this isn't really a question with a direct answer/from a text book, this is a question i'm asking.

Answer 3

I know that it takes approximately 150 seconds to exit earth's atmosphere

Answer 4

But then again that is with a space shuttle.

Answer 5

Without gravity, the earth would not attract with anything and it will not float on the universe.
So I would say in a few minutes.

Answer 6

Every object is attracted to one another through gravity.
If there was no gravity everything would start to fly away in space, no matter where you are at.
With no gravity the material making up your room might get scattered and flown before you reach space.

Answer 7

Thank you.

Answer 8

150 seconds sounds correct!

Answer 9

No problem!

Answer 10

Is that a physics class?

Answer 11

Science, but I thought this would be a correct place to ask.

Answer 12

Versus Computer Science

Answer 13

Ah, I see.

Answer 14

Without gravity life will not survive for a more than60 s ..we can't neglect that the gravity is that force that makes balance earth in it's orbit and maintain atmosphere.

Answer 15

first, earth has no gravity means no mass, that means we/you are how exist in a room that is on earth

Answer 16

Without gravity humans can die in a few months without proper maintenance. .

Answer 17

Well to say lack of gravity disintegrates objects is slightly fallacy because there is still strong nuclear force binding atoms together so that they wouldn't break apart. If gravitational force were to die off then what's left of it will still continue to exist.

Answer 18

Except that they float around WITHOUT disintegration.

Answer 19

Objects will NOT scatter because gravity is only one of the four fundamental forces in our universe and it is sadly the weakest force

Answer 20

Google search for "lowest pressure a human can survive"....."At sea level, where atmospheric pressure is 1 atm and oxygen is about 21% the partial pressure of oxygen is enough to saturate hemoglobin. The lowest tolerable pressure of air is about 0.47 atm (475 millibars of atmospheric pressure) - recorded at 5950m altitude."

My thought would be this is an open ended question that doesn't really have a "right" answer the teacher is looking for, thus creativity and thoroughness are quite important.

As Robert correctly noted, things will not fly apart if gravity shuts off.... though I would say that it is not nuclear forces that hold together the matter we see so much as the electromagnetic force that is primarily responsible for the macroscopic matter we see. The nuclear force holds together the nuclei of the atoms, but it is the electromagnetic attraction between atoms that forms molecules and larger structures in an overwhelming majority of cases (allowing for a few possible weird exceptions).

Now what WILL happen if gravity were to be "shut off" is the atmosphere would no longer be attracted downward toward the surface of the planet, but would instead, coupled with its inertia and the rotation of the Earth about its axis and around the sun, quickly be sloughed off into outer space. While water would be far more resistant to this mechanism it too would be lost into space, leaving only the rocky crust behind (maintained by its crystalline structure). However it is the loss of atmosphere that would presumably cause death the quickest. Not necessarily just from lack of oxygen as that quote suggest, but also due to the fact that our bodies have evolved to thrive under certain narrow range of pressure conditions. Low pressure conditions would significantly impair our ability to breath (exhale specifically) properly, and would presumably bring on asphyxiation even more quickly than just due to the decrease in the amount of oxygen alone.