GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
Filtered by: Scitech
SciTech
Kate Upton's bikini science: Why there's no such thing as zero gravity
By TJ DIMACALI, GMA News
Just when you think that Sports Illustrated can't find any more new places for a bikini photo shoot, they decide to do one with Kate Upton —in "zero gravity."
The photo shoot has since gone viral online, with even reputable popular science blogs Discovery, CNet, and Gizmodo jumping aboard.
The photo shoot has since gone viral online, with even reputable popular science blogs Discovery, CNet, and Gizmodo jumping aboard.
But while Sports Illustrated is quick to call this a "Zero G" pictorial—it sounds sexier, after all, and it also happens to be the name of the company that helped make it happen—the fact is that Kate really wasn't in a completely gravity-less environment.
Zero gravity is a myth
Upton isn't the first celebrity to show some skin in a weightless environment. Jane Fonda did it first in the opening scene of her 1968 film, Barbarella—albeit with some clever camera trickery:
If anything, Fonda's romp in space is a reflection of popular culture's fascination with—and misunderstanding of—living in space.
Among other things, the concept of "zero gravity" is a myth, as well as the common idea that satellites have "escaped Earth's gravity," according to space journalist James Oberg.
In fact, what most people think of as "zero gravity" is actually a state of weightlessness where the effects of the Earth's gravity are so minute as to be negligible. Scientists call this microgravity.
Although there's no such thing as "zero gravity", there is such a thing as "weightlessness".
Although there's no such thing as "zero gravity", there is such a thing as "weightlessness".
"Gravity still exists in space. It keeps satellites from flying straight off into interstellar emptiness. What's missing is 'weight,' the resistance of gravitational attraction by an anchored structure or a counterforce," Oberg explained.
Upton demonstrates Einstein's Theory of Relativity
And that's exactly what's happening with Upton: she's not resisting the pull of gravity. She's weightless because she's actually falling inside an airplane that's also falling with her.
In other words, she's in freefall.
This method of achieving weightlessness is a concept that has been well-known to science for over a century. Albert Einstein called it the "equivalence principle", and made it a cornerstone of his famous General Theory of Relativity:
"Einstein's first step towards that theory was the realization that, even in a gravitational field, there are reference frames in which gravity is nearly absent," explains the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics.
He showed that standing in an elevator at rest on the ground is equivalent to riding a moving rocket in space: in both cases, you would be pushed down as if by gravity.
On the other hand, being in a free-falling elevator is equivalent to being in a motionless rocket in space: you would be weightless.
"In an ordinary situation here on earth, you feel your weight as gravity pulls your body down, pressing whatever part of it carries your weight onto the floor. (But) in the falling elevator, both your body and the floor fall in parallel, at the same rate," according to the Max Planck Institute.
Of course, you can't stay in freefall for very long unless you're intent on turning yourself into ground beef. Nobody in the world would want that to happen to Kate Upton either, so the "Zero G" plane she was on had to ease out of freefall after a few minutes, taking her and the rest of the Sports Illustrated crew to safer heights. — GMA News
More Videos
Most Popular
