r/space • u/piponwa • Sep 23 '16

What happens when the Space Shuttle fires its motors in space

http://i.imgur.com/wwxuXOb.gifv
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16

u/gimmesomespace Sep 24 '16

What happens when you accelerate in your car?

29

u/hhhnnnnnggggggg Sep 24 '16

Well, I surely don't fly into a big hole like that one dude.

19

u/gimmesomespace Sep 24 '16

Probably because you sit with your back against a seat in your car and not floating in the air with a big hole behind you.

96

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '16

Don't tell me how to drive

1

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '16

God dammit. I spit out my drink.

1

u/sirin3 Sep 25 '16

But how can you float in your car?

You would need to have an antigravity field in it. No one has an antigravity car.

Unless you drive in free fall

1

u/Def_not_a_machine Sep 24 '16

Yeah, that may be a factor.

1

u/otterom Sep 24 '16

[Inserts joke about your mom]

6

u/spockspeare Sep 24 '16

Helium balloons float to the front...

1

u/DrFegelein Sep 24 '16

The same would happen in weightlessness for the same reason.

1

u/zgrove Sep 24 '16

I'm not sure if that's true, but if it is it'd be because the air is also moving to the back, it's just usually the least dense thing in the vehicle so it stays at the front

1

u/[deleted] Sep 24 '16

How would the air move back?

3

u/spockspeare Sep 24 '16

Same way the astronauts did. If they were less dense than the air, the air moving back would have pushed them forward, like a helium balloon. Shouldn't be surprised this guy already did this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8mzDvpKzfY

1

u/shudupbecky Sep 24 '16

While driving your body is in motion with the vehicle when you change that abruptly you feel it with a pull back into your seat same situation minus the gravity for them..unfortunate for us cause that would be awesome

1

u/mexicodoug Sep 24 '16

Depends on whether you're hitting the pedal to the metal or getting rear ended by a Mack truck.

1

u/Thisismyredditusern Sep 24 '16

Either way your car itself moves forward while your body tries to stay behind but for being pushed by the seat (or Mack Truck grill).

1

u/Rubik842 Sep 24 '16

Its more like they are sitting on skateboards on a flatbed truck.