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xhkkffbflast Friday at 4:09 PM2 repliesview on HN

It doesn't hold true across the universe? I thought this was one of the more universal things like the speed of light.


Replies

procfloralast Friday at 5:27 PM

G, the gravitational constant is (as far as we know) universal. I don't think this is what they meant, but the use of "across the universe" in the parent comment is confusing.

g, the net acceleration from gravity and the Earth's rotation is what is 9.8m/s² at the surface, on average. It varies slightly with location and altitude (less than 1% for anywhere on the surface IIRC), so "it's 9.8 everywhere" is the model that's wrong but good enough a lot of the time.

hackeman300last Friday at 5:26 PM

Gravity isn't 9.8m/s/s across the universe. If you're at higher or lower elevations (or outside the Earth's gravitational pull entirely), the acceleration will be different.

Their point was the 9.8 model is good enough for most things on Earth, the model doesn't need to be perfect across the universe to be useful.

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