Had physics for 2 years now on highschool, but there is a thing I am wondering about.
You know the in the height above the earth surface around where the satellites are (Or the ISS), I've calculated that there actually is a big amount of gravity-forces, even up there. (9.1 - 9.2 m/s^2) - How come that things aren't dragged down to earth, and why are you even weightless?
Why doesn't satellites fall down more frequently, and does it have something to do with their orbit-speed?
Okay, many questions here, but just a curious guy.
Answer
These are two different effects. Satellites don't fall down because they are moving on a circular orbit. Actually, they are falling down all the time, since circular motion is accelerated (though the velocity doesn't change absolute value, it changes direction!), so it is kind of "falling around the earth".
The second question is, why doesn't an astronaut in a space station fall down to the floor? That's because, both the station and the astronaut feel the same force which holds both of them on a circular orbit. But for falling down to the floor the astronaut should feel a stronger force than the space station, otherwise there is no net force driving the astronaut and the stations floor into each other.
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