The influence of gravity on a falling item on different planets in our solar system, according to this awesome animation shared to Reddit by u/asianj1m, featuring a humorous example of the Sun at the conclusion (seriously, watch it to the end). The animation depicts a giant bundle of wood falling from the sky onto a vehicle, which smashes to varied degrees depending on the planet, using a physics simulator video game called beamNG. Drive to illustrate how gravity might influence a falling item.
The automobile and pallet bounce happily for those with low gravity, but what about the gas giants and the Sun? You may now add gravity to the list of reasons why you shouldn’t stand on them. Take a look at the following animation: If you still don’t have a good enough sense of each planet’s gravity, these figures might be able to help.
The gravity on Earth is 9.8 meters per second2 (32.2 feet per second2), which means that when you descend towards the Earth, you are accelerating at 9.8 meters per second for every second you are falling. Our beloved long-lost buddy Pluto, with a gravity of 0.62 m/s2 (2.0 ft/s2), is the smallest celestial body depicted in the animation. Falling from Pluto would be a long process, taking about 16 seconds to reach the same velocity as falling from Earth in 1 second. However, if you were to fall on the Sun, you’d find yourself moving at a breakneck speed. The Sun’s gravity is 274 m/s2 (899.0 ft/s2), or about 30 times that of the Earth.
As you can see in the image above, the automobile is already crushed into the ground (or, in this case, flaming plasma) by its own weight, but the wood completely shatters it. So there you have it: don’t stand on the Sun when falling timber is falling. You now know.
Bill Nye the Science Guy’s motto for a long time has been “Science rules,” and a funny viral video showcasing surface gravity on many planets shows Nye true. An animation depicts a blue car continuously being struck by a bundle of two-by-fours in the video, which was submitted on Reddit by u/Multipace under the subreddit r/InterestingAsF*ck, depicting the damage if the drop occurred at different locations across our solar system.
