Zero Gravity: It May Not Be What You Think
A misconception arises when we ask people about the role that gravity plays in space. If you watch movies set in space — or for that matter, read statements from NASA —you will be led to think that gravity is absent in space. After all, people often refer to space as a “zero gravity” environment (the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey famously showed a complex set of instructions for its “zero gravity toilet”), and NASA usually refers to the conditions in orbit as “microgravity.”
