Why don't the clouds float out to space?

Answer 1

The earth does not float - it free falls in orbit. It is a popular misconception that there is no gravity in space.

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Imagine you are in an elevator and the cables snap, and the elevator starts free falling. Disregarding air friction, you and everyone in the elevator will all fall at the same speed as the elevator. You will be able to "float" weightlessly inside the elevator, just as astronauts do inside the ISS.

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In the case of the elevator, we know eventually you will meet an untimely end when the elevator strikes the ground floor. But unlike the elevator, the earth moves around the sun at a very high speed, so as it falls downward, it also travels sideways, and so the earth follows the path of a circle. The shape and size of this circle is such that the earth never gets much closer to the sun, even though it is "falling". In this way, the Earth is free falling around the sun in an orbit. Similarly, the moon is free falling around Earth in an orbital path.

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To understand how the earth is free falling, follow this mental experiment. Disregard air friction, and assume you have unlimited strength. Imagine throwing a Baseball level to the ground - that is, you don't throw it up or down, but it is travelling parallel to the ground when it leaves your hand. We all know from experience the ball will travel a ways before falling to the ground. Now, throw it twice as hard. It will travel twice as far before hitting the ground. Now imagine being able to throw the baseball so hard that it lands 6000 miles (10,000 Km) away. But 6000 miles away is a quarter of the way around the spherical planet. So your ball did not go in a straight line - it was falling all the time it was in flight, but because the earth was curving away, the ball also travelled in a curved line while in free fell. Finally, imagine throwing the ball so hard that, as it fell downwards, the earth curved away at the same rate, and so the ball wizzed around the earth and hit you on the back of the head.

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We know that a ball cannot hit you on the back of the head, even if you could throw it that hard, because of air friction and obstacles in the way, like mountains. But at 250 miles up, there is (almost) no air friction, and no obstacles to prevent the ball from circling the earth. That is exactly what happens to the International Space Station (the ISS) - the rockets push (throw) the ISS so hard and so fast in a sideways direction that, as the ISS falls, the earth curves away from it at exactly the same rate, and so the ISS really does fall without actually getting closer to the earth. The same principle applies to the Earth orbiting around the Sun - it free falls in a sideway motion at the exact rate that allows the Earth to stay in perfect orbit around the Sun.

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We know from Newton's first law of motion that a body in motion moves at the same speed and in the same direction unless a force acts upon it. So we know that the Earth would go in a straight line, NOT in orbit, if no forces were acting upon it. But it does follow a circular orbit, and so we know for certain that that full force of gravity is still acting upon the Earth and all of its inhabitants.

Answer 2

The earth does not exactly float in space. The earth is spinning constantly. With the spinning and the gravity pull, the earth stays in an elliptical orbit around the sun. There are also magnetic forces going on between the poles.

Answer 3

There are a number of reasons why humans SHOULD go into space, but there is one critical reason why humans MUST go into space; because our Earth is a fragile planet, and we don't want to become extinct from a single disaster.

Asteroids or comets or large rocks have struck the Earth before, wiping out large fractions of all life, and it WILL happen again. I don't really want humans to go the way of the dinosaurs, becoming extinct all at once. To prevent this, men and women must go into space and explore the galaxy and find other planets where we can settle. Then if any one planet is destroyed by a disaster, the entire human race won't be suddenly wiped out.

There's an old saying; "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." If you drop the basket, or if it breaks, you lose everything. Let's not keep all of our humans on one planet, for the same reason.

Answer 4

There is not enough gravity to hold them down. There is enough gravity to keep the spacecraft in Earth orbit, unless it's on the way to/from the Moon, but, there's not enough gravity to keep the astronauts from floating in space.

Answer 5

to explore the solar systems of the universe.

Answer 6

because of gravity and the many layers we have around the earth (ie the ozone)

Answer 7

because of the gravitational pull of the sun, the planets stay in their orbit system and don't drift away :)

Answer 8

Well, it is they're personal choice. They are extremely brave men and women to visit the moon to uncover paths in history.

Answer 9

'cause there's no force of gravity.

Answer 10

becuase there is no gravity