Empirical Earth · Gravity, Buoyancy & the Air

Why a butterfly can fly but the oceans stay put

The claim

“Gravity is too weak to hold a butterfly but strong enough to hold the oceans — contradiction!”

What is measured

Gravity pulls the butterfly and the oceans alike, in step with their mass. The butterfly rises because its wings make lift greater than its tiny weight, the same trick a 400-tonne airliner uses, and falls the moment it stops. The oceans have no wings, so they pool at the lowest point. “Too weak for one, strong enough for the other” mistakes the ability to make lift for the absence of gravity.

What would show this is wrong

showing a butterfly, bird or plane that keeps rising with no lift, thrust or buoyancy, truly unaffected by gravity, or water that climbs uphill on its own with nothing pushing it. Neither is ever seen: cut the lift and everything falls, and unpumped water always flows down.

Sources

  1. The four forces of flight. An aircraft (or any flyer) is acted on by four forces — lift, weight, thrust and drag; it rises when the upward lift its wings generate exceeds its downward weight link
  2. The mass of the oceans. Earth’s hydrosphere — all its surface and near-surface water — totals roughly 1.4×10 21 kg (about 1.4×10 18 tonnes), only ~0.023% of the planet’s mass, yet far too mu link
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