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October 5, 2012

Strange But True!

Q. If it's not “motion sickness” you're feeling at the amusement park, what is it? Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein would have applauded your more precise terminology.

A. Goose your car's gas at a green light and you feel your body plastered back against the seat, as if “gravity were somehow pulling you down and backward at the same time,” says Louis A. Bloomfield in “How Things Work: The Physics of Everyday Life.” When this happens, you're actually experiencing the feeling of acceleration, as when starting up in a fast elevator or taking off in a plane.


 
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