Exploring the Many Slides of Gravity
Exploring the Many Sides of Gravity
Poetic / Prosaic —
There
is a mystical virtue in right angles. There is an unspoken morality in seeking
the level and plumb. A house will hold together only if the joints are square
and the members upright. When the bubble is lined up between two marks etched
in the glass tube of a level, you have aligned yourself with the forces that
hold the universe together.
—
Scott Russell Sanders, from THE PARADISE OF BOMBS
Prosaic-Poetic / Scientific —
Reconciling Gabriel Marcel and Ida Rolf
Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.
—
Gabriel Marcel
Consign your body to gravity.
—
Ida P. Rolf
Indeed,
gravity is that force which holds the universe together.
And
yet, we observe that the universe is expanding.
Then,
gravity must be an expansive force too.
Scientifically,
we know that gravity on Earth has two operations.
Everyone
is quite familiar with the one, the downward pull of gravity.
“Let
go your cup of Joe, you know where it go.”
But
there is the other side of gravity.
It
is expansive and lifting.
Exquisitely
so.
I
know it is.
Not
from a book.
Well,
I also did read it in a book.*
But
mainly and importantly from my own direct lived experience.
While
learning how to live fully adapted with the gravity field of the Earth.
What
is that experience?
Feet
firmly rooted to the Earth.
A
subtle yet definite and powerful liftedness toward the heavens.
In
between . . . the great mystery of life, everything and nothing.
The force of gravity is always attractive.
—
Isaac Newton
I like it. I’ll take it.
—
David Wronski
Scientific—
*Centripetal Force and Centrifugal Force
Centripetal force and centrifugal force [are the] action-reaction
force pair associated with circular motion. According to Newton's first law of
motion, a moving body travels along a straight path with constant speed (i.e.,
has constant velocity) unless it is acted on by an outside force. For circular
motion to occur there must be a constant force acting on a body, pushing it
toward the center of the circular path. This force is the centripetal
("center-seeking") force. For a planet orbiting the sun, the force is
gravitational; for an object twirled on a string, the force is mechanical; for
an electron orbiting an atom, it is electrical. The magnitude F of the
centripetal force is equal to the mass m of the body times its velocity squared
v 2 divided by the radius r of its path: F = mv 2/ r. According to Newton's
third law of motion, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The centripetal force, the action, is balanced by a reaction force, the
centrifugal ("center-fleeing") force. The two forces are equal in
magnitude and opposite in direction. The centrifugal force does not act on the
body in motion; the only force acting on the body in motion is the centripetal
force. The centrifugal force acts on the source of the centripetal force to
displace it radially from the center of the path. Thus, in twirling a mass on a
string, the centripetal force transmitted by the string pulls in on the mass to
keep it in its circular path, while the centrifugal force transmitted by the
string pulls outward on its point of attachment at the center of the path. The
centrifugal force is often mistakenly thought to cause a body to fly out of its
circular path when it is released; rather, it is the removal of the centripetal
force that allows the body to travel in a straight line as required by Newton's
first law. If there were in fact a force acting to force the body out of its
circular path, its path when released would not be the straight tangential
course that is always observed.
Rolfing New Jersey
Rolfer New Jersey
Structural Integration New Jersey
Rolfing Montclair, New Jersey
Rolfer Montclair, New Jersey
Structural Integration Montclair, New Jersey
