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Reading the books for the first time. How unreasonable is my gripe about thrust "gravity"? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/theexpanse@lemmy.world
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With the show being one of my favorites, I'm happy to say that I'm really enjoying the novels as well. That said, it keeps bugging me when the term "thrust gravity" is always used to describe something that's explicitly Newton's 3rd law - ie, not gravity. I'm probably not understanding something, but it bugs me to see a series that makes a point to be at least reasonably scientific to use a term that seems so wrong.

Side note: How come the third law missed out on natural feeling shorthand? 1st - inertia. 2nd - f=ma. 3rd - ???. Feels like something got overlooked there.

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[–] [S] 0 points 2 months ago (4 children)

The ship experiences accele forward, and the occupants inside experience that as a gravity like effect.

Right - Newton's 3rd law. As I mentioned in my side note, I don't know if a singular word exists for that. "Action-reaction" is a term I've seen, but that's pretty clunky. Afaik, a new word would have to be coined to express that interaction. If I had to suggest something, my off-the-cuff, "probably wrong in even more ways" idea would be "pronertia".

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

    not a bad word, problem is i hear that, and for some reason i think potential energy, not a gravity like effect! How about gravnertia? Inertia which causes a gravity like effect

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah, but the whole point is that the effect felt is the 3rd law in action - one thing pushes against another thing, and that thing pushes back. While gravity can cause that, it's not gravity itself, right? If I catch a ball that's in motion, it's the force I apply to it that stops it, not gravity. Same thing for ships in thrust, or spinning stations. It's all 3rd law in action, not just different versions of gravity.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    Yea, but language is about communication, not absolutely precision.

    This isn't a scientific paper, this characters and naritive trying to express ideas, and there clarity of intent and idea is more important than scientific rigour.

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