Jan 07 2009
“What If …” Gravity Were Suddenly Reduced by Half?
Surely you remember seeing the grainy films of the first men on the moon bouncing around as if they were filled with helium. The reason, of course, was the moon’s relatively weak gravitational pull.
That brings us to a new “What If …” exercise. Here it is: What if the Earth’s gravity were suddenly reduced by half? Obviously, we’d all be able to jump much higher than we can now. But what other consequences would we face?
Spend a bit of time mentally ruminating on this one and submit your thoughts in a comment to this post. Remember, you can submit anything from one word to a full story. Have a little fun with this and let us enjoy what you come up with!
Interesting Responses to the Last “What If …”
Our last (and first) “What If …” exercise was: “What If Women – Not Men – Had Babies and Breast-Fed Them?”
Here are some of the responses:
Macon D: Schools would have plenty of money, and the Defense Department would have to hold bake sales to buy those unmanned drones that bomb Afghan wedding parties.
Glanda Widger: The world population would decline drastically. Men would never go through the experience more than one time. I love ’em but they are just such babies when it come to pain, discomfort or having to be inconvenienced. Think about it.
Gloria: If men had babies, not women, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Tim O’Dell: Then maybe men would feel more of a connection to their offspring, and we’d have far less fatherless children!
Magnolia: We would have the perfect cure for PMS, there would be a new family leave act that would allow men to take time off to deal with their pregnancy woes. And women would never get a moment’s peace listening to every gripe and complain from the woefully pregnant and miserable. I personally would think there is finally justice in this world.
Thanks to all of you who participated in the last “What If …” Give this new one a shot, too. And to those of you who didn’t take part, put your fingers to the keyboard and see what you come up with! It will build your imagination and writing skills.
Weightwatcher’s stock would plummet.
As a female my first thought would be to clebrate my drastic and desired weight loss. Then I would have to consider that such an event would encourage men to build even taller structures with which to block out the sunshine. Taller buildings to fall over in windstorms and top floors that require oxygen masks to work in them. Oh joy. Never mind I think I’ll just stick to my diet.
It would take far less energy to do everyday things, and less muscle power. Therefore we would all be less toned and would need to exercise twice as hard to keep our bodies in shape. Sounds bad to me….I’m glad the universe was created the way it is!!
…trampoline injuries would go up. Cats would be more easily rescued by firemen. Basketball would be easier. And the two kids in the picture would hit their heads on a high tree branch and suffer concussions.
Moons will be further, sky will be higher. Buildings will be taller, celling height will increase too with the ban of celling fan. Basket ball team would need people of smaller size that moves like a dart. Airplane would need less fuel, but cars would built heavier for safety reasons. Everyone will wear splash-proof clothes while washing hands. Man will need urinal more than ever. Kangaroos will fly like chicken, and chicken will fly like birds. fleas will roam the universe.
So me and my friend were arguing and i was saying that it would be cool to have half the gravity so we could jump higher on bikes. But he said if there was half the gravity than we would jump twice as high and therefore fall twice as far so we would fall at the same rate as we would with normal gravity. I told him he was wrong cause we would have half the weight and acceleration would be slower and what not. So can someone please answer this for me to end this?