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1g is the strength of the Earth's gravity, so aren't we always constantly experiencing 1g downwards? Like, every time we jump or lift our feet?


You're experiencing 1g most of the time in everyday life, when not moving. When you jump, you're briefly experiencing a few g downward while you push up on your legs to go against gravity, then briefly zero g for the short amount of time where your body does not touch the ground and you actually follow a ballistic trajectory, then finally again a few g upward as you land.


> When you jump, you're briefly experiencing a few g downward while you push up on your legs to go against gravity, then briefly zero g for the short amount of time where your body does not touch the ground and you actually follow a ballistic trajectory, then finally again a few g upward as you land.

You have the takeoff part backwards; you experience a few g upward when you jump. If you're just standing on Earth, you experience 1 g upward, not downward; the force you feel is not gravity pulling down on you, it's the Earth pushing up on you and preventing you from free-falling downward in response to gravity. When you jump up, your legs exert additional upward force.

(When you land, your legs exert upward force again to stop you from falling down any more, so you have that part right, as well as the zero g part.)


Yes ofc, you also experience a momentary g force much higher than 1g otherwise you wouldn’t be able to jump since you need to counter gravity.

You also then experience higher than 1g forces when you land as the deceleration is abrupt.




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