Weightlessness

Weightlessness

      Weightlessness is the term used to describe the feeling one gets when there is no normal force(or the experience of feeling no weight). Weightlessness is thought of when one is in freefall or in space. Many movies get the physics of this pretty wrong for the most part. Apollo 13 is one of the few that interprets weightlessness very accurately. The reason for this is that the actors in the movie are actually experiencing weightlessness. For the scenes where they are supposed to be in the space shuttle the scenes were actually filmed with the use of NASA's KC-135 zero g plane that actual astronauts use to train The plane performs a series of parabolas where it drops rapidly over and over again in a freefall. This video displays how this is done very well.

   

  Many other space movies that feature weightlessness usually use cables to give the effect and it just doesn't look very real. Most space movies just add artificial gravity to everything to make it easier to film which is right now seems hundreds of years from now and just seems impossible. The only somewhat accurate interpretation of a ship that has artificial gravity would be in the 2001: A Space Odyssey.  A circular ship that rotates to provide a normal force would theoretically be possible. 

       Apollo 13 is easily the best example of weightlessness in space. I give it a GP because the movie is based off a real event and the actors actually experienced what an astronaut would feel.