Wow. i didnt expect to get any comments on this paper. i justy wrote this for my freshman physics class. The assignment was simply to describe an everyday activity, i chose breathing and drinking, and describe how you would accomplish it without gravity.

This is just what would happen if now. like right now CLICK! gravity off.  what would happen? im not talking about how people could develope things in the future. simply what would happen if gravity dissapated for a while, until my action was completed.

but thank you all for your detailed responses. i really appreciate how seriously this is being taken.

There are several issues with what you've been saying. The magnetic shoes thing seems like a good starting point, so I guess I'll start there. Magnetite, as well as plain magnets made using iron, are not the only type of magnet out there. If you take a piece of iron, wrap a wire around it in the right way, and supply power to the wire, it will make the iron magnetic so long as the power continues to flow.

Mechastorm already mentioned that you would indeed be able to open a door, but let me elaborate on that. If you've been in a physics class and studied real-world applications of Newton's laws, you would realize that, while the doorknob could certainly move you when you tried to turn it, you have more than sufficient strength to force it open, since you're still acting against your own mass, which doesn't want to be forced into motion. For example, in space, if you took a tennis ball and threw it, the force with which you threw it would be distributed equally between yourself and the ball. That would result in the ball traveling rather slowly, and you moving back at a much slower, but still perceptible rate. (Unless of course you were a Liliputian, in which case you would probably be moving faster than the tennis ball)

As for actualy consequences, think about this. The only thing that holds our planet together is gravity. In the absence of that, the centrifugal force of the planet's rotation would be more than enough to tear it apart and send us, our houses, and our entire planet whirling away into the cosmos, slowly disintegrating further and further.

Well mecha,

you see im not underestimating the human tendency to adapt. I am simply speaking about what it would be like if an evil genius suddenly turned the gravity off. yes. i am aware that this is not possible but then again i propose the what IF situation. And magnetic shoes would not work be cause  there is no way to turn them off so your feet can move. also there is no such thing, nor will there ever be a gravity generator. you cannot generate such a force unless it was implanted in the center of our earth, at which point it would prove meaningless because there would already be gravity and the device would melt.

But no to the drinking solution. we would all  be dead before we got to develope such a solution. Experiments would be necessary but impossible to perform since none of us would have water.

also, keep in mind there IS NO GRAVITY. if you tried to open a door the doorknob would not be whats being turned. you would be turning. same for a window. if you try to pull it up it is not the window that will be doing so.

So. seeing as how you cannot leave a room, no will you have any water or food, you would die.

i thank you mecha for reading my piece. happy travels~

I think you underestimate the human tendency to adapt.  It wouldn't be long at all before we had gravity generators, or at least magnetic shoes and furniture.  And even prior to that- we'd have a gravity-independant drinking solution, which I imagine would resemble a Capri-Sun beverage (only airtight).  Additionally, if that were the world you were born into, the stomach thing wouldn't be an issue - it would be all you know.

I may simply be too innovative, but I would love the challenges that come with adapting to a lack of gravity.

Thanks for this very entertaining concept, however.  I thoroughly enjoyed the tangent thoughts it spawned.