![]() While accelerations are often calculated relative to the Earth, g-force measures an object's acceleration in an inertial reference frame. Scientific usage prefers explicit reference to either acceleration or force, and use of the appropriate units (in the SI system, metres per second squared for acceleration, and newtons for force). For example, a person experiencing a g-force of 3 "g" feels three times as heavy as normal.īecause of the potential for confusion about whether g-force measures acceleration or force, the term is considered by some to be a misnomer. However, the interpretation of g-force as a force can be partially rescued by noting that its numerical value is the "ratio" of the force "felt" by an object under the given acceleration to the force that the same object "feels" when resting stationary on the Earth's surface. For this reason, g-force cannot be considered to measure force in absolute terms. Thus, objects with different masses experiencing numerically identical "g-forces" will in fact be subject to forces of quite different magnitude. This equation shows that the larger an object's mass, the larger the force it experiences under the same acceleration. ![]() The relationship between force and acceleration stems from Newton's second law, "F" = "ma", where "F" is force, "m" is mass and "a" is acceleration. ![]() This is often reversed when the car's path curves downwards, and lower than normal g is felt, causing the riders to feel lighter or even weightless. For example, on a roller coaster high positive g is experienced when the car's path curves upwards, where riders feel as if they weigh more than usual. These so-called "g-forces" are experienced, for example, by fighter jet pilots or riders on a roller coaster, and are inertial forces caused by changes in speed and direction. The unit "g" is sometimes written as "gee", and g-forces are informally referred to as "gees" (as in expressions such as "pulling ten gees")" Fact|date=August 2008.Īlthough actually a measurement of acceleration, the term g-force is, as its name implies, popularly imagined to refer to the " force" that an accelerating object "feels". The symbol "g" is properly written both lowercase and italic to distinguish it from the symbol "G", the gravitational constant and g, the symbol for gram, a unit of mass, which is not italicized. The "g" ( pronEng|ˈdʒiː) is a non- SI unit equal to the nominal acceleration of gravity on Earth at sea level ( standard gravity), which is defined as 9.80665 m/s 2 (32.174 ft/s 2). G-force is not, however, an absolute measurement of force and the term is considered a misnomer by some see "Connection with force", below. It is proportional to the reaction force that an object experiences as a result of this acceleration-or, more correctly, as a result of the net effect of this acceleration and the acceleration imparted by natural gravity. G-force (also G-force, g-load) is a measurement of an object's acceleration expressed in "g"s.
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