Is gravity strong enough to stop air in the atmosphere from flowing off into outer space?
345992
Yes. The gravitational force is not that weak.\nNote also that the pressure difference is not sudden at all, higher and higher into the atmosphere, the pressure becomes lower as the weight of the particles above becomes less. As the pressure gets lower, the effect of gravity is also lower.\nWe do still lose some air particles into space, but not a significant quantity.
1002624
Well actually on thing first: the reason why on a spacecraft or in a spacestation air is sucked out into space, is because gas as being air rises and fills as much room as it can expand, but as space is empty it will try to consume that space. This gets vacuum mixed up with air/gas escaping.\nSo nebulas, dust, gas and other remnants can stay in one place. Although the gas expands and converts dark matter to a larger mass (process=0.000023% conversion). As also the mass expands, the same way as galaxies expand the universe like the particles of the nova gas.\nIf a spaceship or spacestation was to explode it would be a flash of light expanding on the particles that were ejected by the explosive expansion, feeding on the explosion power. Basically the explosion would push out the mass rather than the mass expanding on itself. The term of explosion in space is not yet literally confirmed but some people name it a "nova". Although it means "explosion of gas from gas cloud" to our sense. There may not be air but the dark matter would provide a vibe cushion. Although a smaller sound it will still be a "sound" that probably only certain ears can hear as well as the energy production would create a certain spectrum of sound.\nOnly man-made satellites have been broken and fallen to Earth, but I don't know of any explosions, actually they're 50% explosion proof I think.\nAlso think as if you're in a spaceship and you are travelling at 100 mph all heavier loose matter will be forced down by gravity and weight as liquid and gas and air as heavy loose matter to be heavy and travelling will cause these heavier loose matter to be forced into your face as you are gaining speed this is a vacuum of force "forced matter vacuum". With the door wide open while travelling will cause a pump or "matter pump vacuum". Making loose heavy matter to be forced to the bottom in gravity and backwards by force vacuum "also 'gravitional vacuum' ". This is called the "circulation vacuum". Like liquid you would see heavier elements go to the base and the lightest at the top this is the same physic as that of forcing heavier loose matter back in a spaceship as "circulation vacuum". This force is relative to gravity "relativity".
468557
No. It would not be possible to fall off the earth from anywhere, in fact, because of the force of gravity. Gravity would always pull us back to the earth.  \n\nBesides, there are parameters such as escape velocity, etc. which are needed for a body to leave the atmosphere and reach space.
129515
No, it shouldnt.\nRadiation can travel through a vacuum (for example, the way way the suns heat is transfered to the Earth).  Convection and Conduction however are prevented by a vacuum.
419265
Outerspace begins when the thermosphere ends. There is no definite beginning to outer space, the atmosphere just blends into outer space about 550km above the Earth.\n\nHope this helps
745294
In a vacuum above a perfectly flat surface, the answer is no. (The ideal model situation)  However, no situation is ideal.\n\nI would say, in most cases, the vertical velocity of an object in freefall would noy be significantly affected by the horzontal velocity.\n\nIf the object is travelling fast enough for air resistance to significantly affect it, then the question becomes much more complex.  At even faster speeds the curvature of the Earth will be significant.\n\nIf the object is a baseball in an ordinary baseball game, unless it is a pitched curve ball, the horizontal velocity is insignificant.
31125
Hmm. I think air would not flow as well. I would guess the atmosphere would stay hovering relative to each plane (6 of them), and perhaps intersect at the corners.\n\nEach side of the earth would have varying surface temperatures, unevenly distributed, which would make the air dramatically different temperatures. This would cause the air to move, possibly faster so it could be quite windy.\n\nHee hee what a weird question, I like it :-)
98562
Yes!  Gravity has nothing to do with air, or the lack there of.  People tend to accociate vacuums with the absense of gravity because of the vacuum of space.  However, gravity is what keeps the moon orbiting the Earth and the Earth orbiting the sun, even though there is no air in space.
475251
If I remember correctly from my high-school physics class, it's a combination of gravity and one of Newton's laws of motion - the one that says "an object in motion stays in motion unless acted on by an outside force." So that force keeps it moving around and gravity keeps it from just flying off into space.
323244
This is conceivable, but only in a very low/no gravity environment.  Thanks for your thoughtful question.
190086
Think about the distances involved.  The supports for the tunnel would be impossible.  Also......even if it was possible....remember that once the tunnel is out of the atmosphere it would be bombarded by meterorites, space debris, etc.
254807
Even if we define "space" as everything from the ground up, we still only experience a pressure of about 1 kg per square centimeter. That's the pressure--or weight--of Earth's atmosphere. Beyond the atmosphere where empty space lies there is virtually no pressure.\n\nGod is spelled B-I-G B-A-N-G\nPBrax@netscape.com
668189
Nobody has found any evidence for a form of gravity the repels instead of attracting, but that doesn't keep people from looking for it. It may yet be found. But such a force is not needed to explain orbital motion. In fact, it would disrupt orbits, causing the Earth to fly away from the Sun and never return.
592132
There's no oxygen in space but we all breathe. The sun has enough gravity to keep the oxygen inside it just like Earth but even more so. However this oxygen isn't for burning like we would burn wood. It is part of the cycle of nuclear reactions going on in the sun. The gravity of the sun is large enough to keep the mass of gas concentrated enough to be able to sustain such nuclear reactions.
29100
There is no known anti-gravity, only gravity.  It is a monopolar force.  Even anti-matter has regular gravity rather than anti-gravity.\n\nTo itsgow_reloaded: free-fall/weightlessness is not the same as anti-gravity.  One would expect antigravity to repel mass, as it would be the opposite (not merely the absence) of gravity.  It would require that there be positive curvature of space-time.
262383
It requires enough thrust to escape Earth's Gravity. \n\nIt is said that a spacecraft uses more than 70% of the fuel on board in the first 20 minutes of the mission just to be able to "enter space", i.e. escape Earth's powerful gravitational pull.
463808
In order to combat gravity, we would need to be able to understand what it is. At the moment, we don't. If we did, it still would be a tall order to mess with the field of a whole planet. Assuming we could "stabilize" gravity at the quantum level, whatever device we invented to do this would undoubtedly require huge amounts of energy.\n\nA much easier method would be to install a system of shock absorbers and hydraulics underneath the floor. Controlled by a computer, these could make up for some weakenings in the field and simulate to the human feet an equal field. This wouldn't actually solve the problem, just treat the syptoms. The air pressure of the cabin could also be increased to press our feet down on the ground more, but if we mess with this too much, we will implode. Also, there is the idea of placing a large verticaly aligned doughnut-shaped cabin to produce "gravity" in the form of centrifugal force, but this would be extremely impractical and require a lot of digging. I hope this helps, because until we have Artificial Gravity, there isn't really a lot that can be done. Cool question, though.