Gravity kids science

18 Interesting & Fun Gravity Facts for Kids [2022 Updated]

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Did you know that without gravity, we would fall right off of Earth’s surface and float away?

Or that gravity is the reason a ball comes back down when you throw it into the air, instead of just traveling higher and higher?

What exactly is this mysterious force of nature? Keep reading to find out!

What is gravity?

Gravity is a force of attraction that pulls together all matter (anything you can physically touch). The more matter something has, the greater the force of its gravity.

That means really big objects like planets and stars have a stronger gravitational pull.

The gravitational pull of an object depends on how massive it is and how close it is to the other object.

For example, the Sun has much more gravity than Earth, but we stay on Earth’s surface instead of being pulled to the Sun because we are much closer to Earth. The gravity of the Sun keeps Earth in orbit around it, keeping us at a comfortable distance.

Who discovered gravity?

For a long time, scientists knew that there was some mysterious force that keeps us on the surface of the Earth.

It wasn’t until 1666 that Isaac Newton first mathematically described the force of gravity, creating Newton’s laws of universal gravitation.

It is said that his ideas about gravity were inspired by watching an apple fall from a tree. Newton wondered what force made the apple fall downward instead of simply floating away.

Another scientist you may have heard of, Albert Einstein, later added to Newton’s ideas about gravity with his theory of relativity.

Why is gravity important?

We already mentioned that we wouldn’t be able to stay put on Earth’s surface without gravity. Objects would simply float away if gravity didn’t exist.

Gravity is also the force that keeps the Earth in orbit around the Sun, as well as helping other planets remain in orbit. 2.

What is the Speed of Gravity on Earth?

At Earth’s surface the acceleration of gravity is about 9.81 m/s2 (32.2 ft/s2).

This means that the speed of an object falling freely will increase by about 9.81 metres (32.2 ft) per second every second.

Does the Moon have Gravity?

Gravity is experienced on the Moon. The acceleration due to gravity on the surface of the Moon is approximately 1.625 m/s2/.

The Moon’s gravity is 1/6 of Earth’s gravity, so objects on the Moon will weigh only 1/6 of their weight on Earth.

So if you weigh 80 pounds (36 kilograms) here on Earth, you would weigh about 13 pounds (six kilograms) on the Moon!

High and low tides in the ocean are caused by the Moon’s gravity.

Facts about Gravity

There is zero gravity in outer space, so you would be weightless if you were floating out in space!

In physics, weight is described as a force and can also be measured in Newtons. Guess who this unit of measurement is named after? That’s right—Isaac Newton, the scientist who discovered gravity.

Objects weigh a little bit more at sea level than they do on the top of a mountain.

This is because the more distance you put between yourself and Earth’s mass, the less gravitational force Earth exerts on you.

So the higher you go, the less gravity pulls on you, and the less you weigh. However, the difference is very small and barely noticeable.

If you wanted to escape Earth’s gravitational pull, you would have to travel seven miles (about 11 kilometers) per second.

This number is called Earth’s “escape velocity.” To travel that fast, you would have to be a superhero!

Even if two objects are different weights, the force of gravity will make them travel at the same speed.

For example, if you dropped balls that were the same size but different weights out of the same second-story window, they would both hit the ground at the same time.

Gravity even helps guide the growth of plants!

Now you know gravity is a major force in the universe. It keeps us from floating away, controls the ocean’s tides, guides plant growth, keeps Earth and other planets in orbit, and more!

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How to make a bouncy ball with things around your house

Gravity For Kids Fun, Clear Explanation With Pictures & Video

Gravity is the force that keeps us from floating off into space. It literally keeps our feet on the ground! We feel the effects of gravity every second of our lives (unless we’re astronauts), but most of us don’t give it a second thought. This article sets out to explain gravity for kids – and anyone else who has ever wondered why they fall down, rather than up.

(See more Science Articles.)

Before we get started, here’s a question:

If I had a 1kg weight in one hand, and a 100g weight in the other hand, and dropped them at exactly the same time, which would fall the fastest and therefore land first?

You’ll find the answer lower down the page!

If you dropped these weights at the same time, which of them would reach the ground first?

Gravity For Kids: Introduction

Let’s start at the beginning.

If you drop a stone, it falls to the floor. Why is this?

Everyone knows that the answer is ‘Gravity’!

But what is gravity? It’s more than just a word!

Gravity is more than just a word – it’s what’s pulling these skydivers towards the Earth!

The real answer is that a force – a force we call gravity – is acting on the stone, and pulling it towards the Earth.

Gravity is, quite simply, a force of attraction between objects. The stone is ‘attracted’ to – pulled towards – the Earth.

Thanks to Isaac Newton, we know that:

The more mass an object has, the bigger the force of attraction.

And …

The closer something is, the bigger the force of attraction.

The Earth, having a very large mass, and being very close, exerts a strong pull on anything in its vicinity, including:

a stone when you drop it,

your body when you fall over,

and something large and round flying above your head …

… The moon!

But why doesn’t the moon come crashing into the Earth? And why didn’t Neil Armstrong come falling towards the Earth when he took his ‘small step for a man’?

We’ll get to that. But first we’re going to take a look at how we came to understand gravity.

Gravity for kids – it’s what keeps your feet on the ground!

The Discovery of Gravity

Back to the question from the top of the page:

If I had a 1kg weight in one hand, and a 100g weight in the other hand, and dropped them at exactly the same time, which would fall the fastest … and therefore land first?

The answer (which I hope you got right) is that they would both fall at the same speed (or, more specifically, with the same acceleration), and both would hit the ground at the same time.

Don’t worry if you got it wrong. Even Aristotle (who lived from 384 to 322 BC) believed that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects, so you’re in good company!

In fact, most people believed this until around 1638, when Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei proved that objects fall at the same speed – whatever their weight (or, strictly speaking, their mass. See this article to find out the difference).

Galileo’s experiments helped us to understand gravity.

Note: An astronomer is someone who studies ‘celestial bodies’, such as moons, stars, planets, comets and galaxies.

Another note: We refer to Galileo Galilei by his first name, for the very good reason that that was how he referred to himself, as was the custom in Italy at the time.

The story goes that Galileo proved his theory by dropping different-sized balls from the leaning tower of Pisa.

He found that the speed at which an object falls is determined not by how heavy it is, but by how long it has been falling.

Leaning Tower Of Pisa – Where Galileo is said to have performed his gravity experiments.

Galileo’s Experiment Repeated … On The Moon!

In 1971 astronaut Dave Scott performed a similar experiment to Galileo’s. Not from the leaning tower of Pisa, but on the moon. Scott dropped a feather and a hammer, and – surprise, surprise –both reached the surface of the moon at the same time.

Galileo calculated the rate at which objects accelerate while falling to Earth. That rate is now known to be 9.81 m/s² – although this figure changes slightly depending on whereabouts on Earth it is measured.

The figure also ignores the effects of air resistance and any other factors which may create anything other than a perfect, frictionless fall.

Galileo increased our understanding of gravity, but even he couldn’t explain why it was that things fell to the ground in the first place.

Isaac Newton

Cambridge University, England, where Isaac Newton studied.

It was up to Englishman Isaac Newton – arguably the greatest scientist who ever lived – to realise what gravity actually was.

Like all scientists, Newton used the work of other scientists as a basis for his own theories.

German astronomer Johannes Kepler had worked out the rotation of the planets round the sun (using observations made by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe).

Using Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, the location of any planet can be calculated.

Using Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, Newton realised that gravity was a force of attraction, and the size of the force depended both on the mass of the objects involved, and the distance they were from each other.

Newton’s Law Of Universal Gravitation

Newton’s law of universal gravitation, published in 1687 states that ‘any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them’.

The law can be written as an equation:

F = G ((m1xm2) / r²).

The force (F) between two objects of masses m1 and m2 is equal to the product of their masses divided by the square of the distance (r) between them.

G is the gravitational constant. It remains the same wherever it is applied in the Universe.

Using Newton’s laws, we can find out why two objects of different mass fall with the same acceleration.

Basically, if the mass of an object is doubled, the gravitational force is doubled, but the rate of acceleration remains the same.

If the mass of an object is halved, then the gravitational force is halved, but again the rate of acceleration remains the same.

Using Maths to Find Planets

Scientists realised that Neptune had to exist – before it was even discovered!

Using Newton’s Law Of Universal Gravitation, scientists were able to calculate the presence of Neptune before it was ‘properly’ discovered.

In the 1820s it was found that Uranus (then the most distant discovered planet) was not where Newton’s laws suggested it should be.

Over the next decades, astronomers in England and France independently concluded that Uranus’s movement was being affected by another, unknown, planet, and calculated where this other planet would appear. This planet was Neptune, and it was found in 1846, proving that Newson’s law was correct.

It was Neptune’s gravitational pull that was affecting the orbit of Uranus.

Gravity, The Moon, And Tides

Tides are caused by the Moon’s gravitational pull.

We’ve found that gravity is the force of attraction between two objects.

Every particle of matter is attracted to every other particle in the galaxy, but the force exerted between individual particles is very small, because their mass is very small.

But with large objects, such as the moon and the Earth, the force of attraction is very strong.

So strong, in fact, that it’s enough to keep the moon spinning around the Earth, rather than flying off into space.

(The mass of the Earth is around 6 million million million million kg.)

Because the moon is smaller, and less dense, than Earth, it has a significantly smaller mass. Therefore the force of gravity on the moon is much smaller. Around 17% of the Earth’s, in fact.

Neil Armstrong’s weight on the moon was only 17% of what it was on Earth. This enabled him to jump higher than he could on Earth, but was still enough to bring him back to the Moon’s surface.

Although the mass of the moon is much less than that of Earth’s, it still affects the Earth. The force it exerts as it orbits the Earth pulls the oceans towards it, causing tides.

Gravity keeps this satellite in orbit above the Earth.

Gravity For Kids Conclusion

We’ve covered a lot in this article. Thanks to Galileo you’ve found that all objects (a stone, you, a grand piano) fall at the same rate, no matter what their mass.

Again, thanks to Galileo, you’ve found that on Earth, objects accelerate at 9.81 m/s² (give or take) when dropped, and that this figure varies ever so slightly depending on where you are on the Earth.

Newton’s work showed us that gravity is a force of attraction between objects, and is dependent both on the masses of the objects involved, and on the distance they are from each other.

From this you know that the force of attraction increases for an object with more mass, and decreases for an object with less mass, meaning that their acceleration is a constant, G.

We’ve found that the moon is responsible for pulling the seas towards it, making the tides go out and come back in again.

Why not read more about the lives and work of the scientists in the article? Many of them made other incredible discoveries that were not just related to gravity.

See more science articles here.

What is gravity? - Want to know everything. Science for children and youth

Details: Parent category: Cosmos; Category: Space Publications

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Gravity, or gravitation, is the force of attraction between two particles of matter (or two objects) that keeps the planets in their orbits around the Sun or the Moon in its orbit around the Earth.

As the distance between two objects increases, their gravitational attraction decreases.

Gravity is also the force that holds any object on Earth or on any other celestial body, preventing it from flying into space.

The larger the object, the stronger its gravitational attraction, and vice versa.

Since the Moon is much smaller than the Earth, its gravitational pull is only one-sixth that of our planet.

That's why the American astronauts on the moon could easily move in large jumps.

Gravity also explains why the Earth - and other planets and celestial bodies - are generally round. As the solar system formed, gravity pulled dust and gases flying through space together.

When a large amount of matter is collected at the same time in one place, such matter forms a ball, since gravity pulls everything to a central point.

Still, the Earth is not perfectly round. In the process of its rotation around its axis, an additional force arises, under the influence of which the Earth slightly “bulges” in the middle region.

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Where on earth has the highest temperature ever been recorded?

Where has the highest temperature ever been recorded on Earth? The highest temperature on Earth was recorded in North Africa, in Libya, in the village of Al Aziziya in the desert on September 13, 1922. On this day, the temperature rose to 58°C (136°F).

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What is gravity and how it works, in simple words

Since ancient times, people have thought about what force attracts objects to the Earth. Such great minds as Newton and Einstein tried to explain the phenomenon of gravity, but so far it remains not fully understood

Gravity (from Latin gravis, “heavy”) is a force that attracts two bodies to each other. Everything that has matter, that is, everything that can be touched, also has a gravitational attraction. Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces in the universe along with electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Although it is the weakest force, it is the most visible. Due to the work of the gravitational force, people can walk on the Earth, and planets can orbit around the Sun.

The gravity of any object is proportional to its mass. Thus, objects with more mass have more gravity. Since the Earth is the largest and closest object around, then all objects and objects are attracted to it. For example, apples fall to the ground, and are not attracted, for example, to a person's head.

The moon is attracted to the Earth as an object with a larger mass (Photo: Shutterstock)

Distance also affects gravity. The further away the object, the weaker the gravitational attraction.

Ancient scientists, trying to describe the world, came up with their own explanations for why objects fall to the ground. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle argued that objects have a natural tendency to move towards the center of the universe, which he believed was in the middle of the earth.

However, the Pole Nicolaus Copernicus in the 16th century realized that the trajectories of the planets in the sky are determined by the position of the Sun, which is the center of the solar system. A century later, the British mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton expanded on the ideas of Copernicus and concluded that because the Sun attracts the planets, all objects are attracted to each other.

Einstein's general theory of relativity is the current theory of gravity today.

Newton's classical theory of gravitation

The English physicist Isaac Newton said that the idea of universal gravitation came to him while walking. He was walking through the apple orchard on his parents' estate and suddenly saw the moon in the daytime sky, and then an apple broke off from a branch and fell to the ground. By that time, Newton was already working on the laws of motion and understood that the apple fell under the influence of the Earth's gravitational field. He also knew that the Moon does not occupy a static position in the sky, but rotates in orbit around the Earth, that is, it is affected by some kind of force that prevents the satellite from flying into space. The physicist realized that perhaps the same force acts on the apple and the moon.

Newton's predecessors thought differently. The Italian physicist Galileo Galilei believed that natural attraction acts on the Earth. The German astronomer Johannes Kepler believed that completely different laws of motion operate in the celestial spheres than on Earth. Newton combined these two types of gravity in his mind.

Newton's law of universal gravitation, formulated by him in 1687, states that between any pair of bodies in the universe there is a force of mutual attraction. It is expressed by a mathematical equation: if M and m are the masses of two bodies, and r is the distance between them, then the force F of mutual gravitational attraction between them is F = GMm / r², where G is the gravitational constant equal to the force with which they act on each other other bodies with masses of 1 kg each, being at a distance of 1 meter from each other. The equation says that force (F) is proportional to the masses of two objects divided by the square of the distance between them. It follows from this that the more massive the objects, the greater the force of attraction between them, but the farther they are from each other, the weaker the attraction.

Newton's law of gravity (Photo: praxilabs.com)

The law applies to all physical material bodies without exception in the Universe. The force of gravity of the Earth at its surface equally affects all material bodies located anywhere on the globe. Each person is affected by the force of gravity, which is felt as a weight.

Newton's law of universal gravitation says that not only the Earth attracts the apple, but the apple also attracts the Earth. But the huge mass of the Earth means that it takes a lot more force to move it a palpable amount, so the apple falls and the Earth remains virtually stationary. The same is true in a wider context. Every object in the universe attracts every other object, and the closer and more massive it is, the greater its gravitational force.

According to Newton, the force of attraction acts at any distance and instantly. However, the fastest speed in the world is the speed of light, and to overcome large distances, light needs not an instant, but several seconds and sometimes even years.

Einstein's Theory of Gravity

In 1798, British physicist Henry Cavendish performed one of the world's first high-precision experiments to try to accurately determine the value of G, the gravitational constant. He built the so-called torsion balance by attaching two small lead balls to the ends of a beam suspended horizontally by a thin wire. Next to each of the balls, the physicist placed a large spherical lead weight. Small lead balls were gravitationally attracted to heavy lead weights, causing the wire to twist slightly. This phenomenon allowed him to calculate the value of G. 92. To get an accurate value, scientists must develop incredibly sensitive equipment.

The German-American physicist Albert Einstein brought about the next revolution in our understanding of gravity. His general theory of relativity showed that gravity arises from the curvature of spacetime, meaning that even light rays that should follow this curvature are refracted by extremely massive objects. Within the framework of his theory, gravity is considered not as a force that acts on bodies, but as a curvature of space and time under the influence of mass and energy.

Einstein's theories were used to suggest the existence of black holes - celestial objects with such a large mass that even light cannot escape from their surface. Near a black hole, Newton's law of universal gravitation can no longer accurately describe how objects move.

The theory that Einstein published in 1915 extended his theory of special relativity, which the scientist had developed a decade earlier. Special relativity claimed that space and time are inextricably linked, but this theory did not recognize the existence of gravity.

In his theory of special relativity, Einstein determined that the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers and showed that the speed of light in a vacuum is the same regardless of the speed at which the observer is moving. As a result, he discovered that space and time are intertwined, and events that occur at the same time for one observer may occur at different times for another.

While developing the equations of his general theory of relativity, Einstein realized that massive objects cause a distortion of space-time. Imagine that you are placing a large object in the center of a trampoline. The object was pressed into the tissue, causing dimples to appear. If you then try to roll the ball around the edge of the trampoline, it will spiral inward towards that object.

The rotation of a heavy object such as the Earth must twist and warp space-time around it. In 2004, NASA launched the Gravity Probe B gravitational probe. According to the agency, the axes of the satellite's finely calibrated gyroscopes drifted very little over time, consistent with Einstein's theory.

Einstein predicted that events such as the collision of two black holes create ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves. And in 2016, the Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced that it had detected such a signal for the first time. The gravitational wave was caused by the collision of two black holes with a mass of 29and 36 times the mass of the Sun. After that, they merged into one big black hole. This happened, presumably, 1.3 billion years ago.

Gravitational waves created by two colliding black holes (Photo: R. Hurt/Caltech-JPL)

Since then, LIGO and its European counterpart Virgo have detected a total of 50 gravitational wave events.

What is the force of gravity

The gravitational field of the Earth is the field of gravity, which is formed due to the force of gravity of the Earth and the centrifugal force caused by its daily rotation.

Gravity on the Earth's surface varies from 9.780 m/s² at the equator to 9.832 m/s² at the poles. In approximate calculations, the value is usually taken equal to 9.81; 9.8 or 10 m/s². However, it takes into account only the force of gravity and does not take into account the centrifugal force arising from the rotation of the Earth. As the body rises above the Earth's surface, the value decreases.

NASA has created a visualization of gravitational anomalies on Earth as part of the GRACE project. Areas where gravity is stronger are shown in red, where it is weaker than standard values in blue. (Photo: NASA)

French scientists claim that the difference in the gravitational constant in different regions of our planet depends on the strength of the Earth's magnetic field. They suggested that such an influence could be explained by the presence of additional dimensions of space hidden from direct observation. Scientists have calculated that the Earth's gravity will be stronger in those places where the magnetic field is stronger. Thus, it reaches its maximum values in the regions of the north and south magnetic poles. They do not coincide with geographic poles. So, the north magnetic pole is located within the boundaries of the current Canadian Arctic, and the south lies on the edge of Antarctica.

If we take the value of gravity on Earth as a unit, then on the Sun it will be equal to 27.9, on Mercury - 0.37, on Venus - 0.9, on the Moon - 0.16, on Mars - 0.37, on Jupiter - 2.6. Thus, if a person who weighs 60 kg on Earth weighs on Jupiter, the scale will show 142 kg.

Astronauts in orbit also experience microgravity. They seem to fall endlessly along with the ship in which they are.

Modern understanding of gravity

Scientific research in the field of gravity continues. Einstein's theory of relativity explains some of the anomalies in Newtonian gravity; however, discoveries in atomic, nuclear and elementary particle physics have shown that it cannot be attributed to interactions in quantum physics. Simply put, Einstein's theory does not work in the microcosm. In this regard, the direction of "quantum gravity" or the quantum description of gravitational interaction has been developed.

However, the theory of quantum gravity has not yet been built. The main difficulty is that the two physical theories it tries to tie together—quantum mechanics and general relativity—are based on different sets of principles. The first describes the temporal evolution of physical systems (for example, atoms or elementary particles) against the background of external space-time. In the second, there is no external space-time at all - it itself is a dynamic variable in the theory.

There are two main areas of development in quantum gravity: string theory and loop quantum gravity. In the first theory, instead of particles and background space-time, there are strings and their high-dimensional counterparts, branes.

In the second, an attempt is made to formulate a quantum field theory without reference to the space-time background; space and time according to this theory consist of discrete parts. These are small quantum cells of space that are connected to each other in a certain way, so that on small scales of time and length they create a discrete structure of space, and on large scales they smoothly turn into a continuous smooth space-time. It is assumed that it is loop quantum gravity that can describe the very process of the explosion that preceded the formation of the Universe.

Since the 1980s, Pennsylvania State University has been developing a paradigm based on the notion of loop quantum gravity. It describes all modern large structures in the Universe as quantum fluctuations of space-time that took place at the birth of the world.

The existing theory of the Big Bang, as already mentioned, does not explain what happened before the birth of the Universe. Scientists from Pennsylvania hold to the alternative Big Rebound hypothesis, according to which the current expanding universe arose from the collapse of the previous universe. To describe this state, they combined quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity. The authors of the work claim that they were able to describe the cosmic radiation that arose immediately after the birth of the universe. They stated that quantum threads were woven into Einstein's fabric of space-time. It is this that in the future may make it possible to explain why galaxies and matter are unevenly distributed in the Universe.

In the 1990s, astronomers discovered that the expansion of the universe was accelerating. This contradicts the predictions of the general theory of relativity, according to which gravity should slow down the expansion. To explain this phenomenon, cosmologists have begun referring to "dark energy," a force that makes up nearly three-quarters of the matter and energy in the universe and therefore pushes it apart. But the origin of dark energy remains a mystery to this day. Some researchers are trying to explain the acceleration of the expansion of the universe without dark energy, suggesting that if the general theory of relativity is wrong, and gravity is weakening on a cosmic scale. But so far no one has come up with a way to test this theory.

There is also such a thing as anti-gravity - a supposed counteraction that extinguishes or even exceeds the gravitational attraction by repulsion.

The current approach to anti-gravity is to release the object from the force of gravity so that it is not subject to gravity for some time. For example, the flight of a person in a wind tunnel is ensured by the fact that the force of gravity is counteracted by the flow of air.

Wind tunnel flight (Photo: FlyStation)

So far, the question of the existence of antigravity as an independent phenomenon remains open, since the very phenomenon of gravity is only being studied.

How to overcome gravity

To overcome the force of Earth's gravity, the body must have a speed equal to 7.91 km/s. This is the first cosmic speed. It is enough for the object to move in orbit around the planet. To escape the Earth's gravitational field, a spacecraft must have a speed of at least 11.2 km/s. This is the second space velocity. To go beyond the boundary of the sphere of gravity, which ends at a distance of about 930 thousand km from the Earth, the speed of the object should be about 16.6 km / s. This is the third space velocity.

If there were no gravity

In accordance with the above laws of physics, this situation is impossible in practice.

Former NASA astronaut physicist Jay Bucky notes that our body is adapted to the force of gravity. When gravity almost disappears (for example, on board the ISS), the body begins to rebuild. During missions in space, ship crew members lose bone mass and muscle tone, as well as a sense of balance.

Dr. Kevin Fong adds that the number of red blood cells in the body drops, which leads to the so-called space anemia. At the same time, wounds heal longer, and immunity also decreases, and there are problems with sleep. Thus, in the absence of gravity, muscles, the vestibular apparatus, the heart, and blood vessels would develop differently.

Astronomer Karen Masters of the University of Portsmouth in the UK suggested that in the absence of gravity, the Earth would begin to rotate at a high angular velocity like a rope untwisted overhead. Thus, any objects on the planet would fly straight into space, just like water with the atmosphere. Only fortified structures could stay on the surface of the Earth for some time.

Ultimately, the lack of gravity will destroy the planet itself. The earth will break into pieces, which will scatter in different directions.

A similar example, but with the Sun, is given by the Discovery News channel in its video.

What happens if gravity does not

Without gravity, there would be no stars or planets, and the Universe would become a mixture of scattered atoms and molecules.

Is artificial gravity possible

When a person finds himself in space, far from the gravitational effects experienced on the surface of the Earth, he experiences weightlessness. Although all the masses of the Universe will continue to attract him, they will continue to attract the spaceship, so the person, as it were, "floats" inside it. In this regard, the question arises - how to create conditions of artificial gravity, under which a person will be able not to fly, but to calmly walk around the spacecraft?

So far, the desired effect can only be obtained through acceleration. In the case of a spaceship, make it rotate. Then you can get centrifugal thrust, as on Earth. But to travel to another star system, you will have to speed up the ship on the way there and slow it down when you arrive back. The human body is unlikely to be able to endure such loads. For example, in order to accelerate to "impulse velocity" like in the movie Star Trek, to a few percent of the speed of light, you would have to sustain an acceleration of 4000 g (units of acceleration caused by gravity) for an hour. This is 100 times the acceleration that prevents the flow of blood in the human body. Roscosmos is exploring the idea of a built-in centrifuge on board the spacecraft, which cosmonauts can periodically enter to experience gravity and reduce the negative effects of being in zero gravity.

Still from Star Trek (Photo: YouTube)

Artificial gravity was supposed to be possible with a negative gravitational mass, which is expected to be inherent in antimatter. However, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) found that the inertial mass of the antiproton (the "mirror image" of the proton, which differs in signs of all characteristics of the physical interaction) coincides with the mass of the proton. If gravity had acted differently on antiprotons, physicists would have noticed the difference. It turns out that the effect of gravity on antiprotons and protons is the same.