I would say the same thing. The moon has it's own gravity, right? But objects weigh less on the moon, so a pen would float, but would eventually return, correct?

I'm not that bright when it comes to gravity and such but I'm almost postive that the moon has its own gravity and things like a human body would not "fall off".

So what is the right answer?

/confused

So as not to appear incredibly ignorant, I am going to say absolutely nothing, and wait for further comments in this thread, which I will be watching like a hawk.

That is, if I don't fall off the earth first.

Which I've done on occasion in the past. But I will not discuss that, under any conditions. Least of all conditions of gravity, which are prevailing. But until when? Aha!

The moon has around 1/6 of the earth's gravity so if you weigh 180 lbs. here, you'd weigh around 30 pounds there. So you'd weigh as much as a medium sized dog does here on earth and would be as likely to float away from the moon as a dog is likely to float away from the earth. Things only float in zero gravity* such as they do on the International Space Station.

*it's not really zero there either but close enough

So if you weigh less than 150lbs, you'll float away right?

I doubt even a 100 lb person would have the strength to launch themselves off the moon.

Also, they brought specially-made, extra-heavy feathers to the Moon. So they wouldn't float away.

(Thanks, Galileo.)

For the gravitationally-challenged, here is Newton's second law of motion, explained in terms of gravity and the famous apple. Basically, if an object is large enough (planetary or moon scale), a person or object of human scale will be attracted to it by a gravity-like force. That force (which we call gravitational attraction and think of as weight) is proportional to the mass of the larger object times the mass of the smaller. The moon is kept in orbit by its attraction to the larger planetary mass of Earth and exerts a force on surface objects (e.g. astronauts) that is (roughly) approximate to 1/6th of Earth's gravity.

Oh and thanks for the heavy feathers video, steef -- Wonderful!

Before this post, I probably would have answered that the pen would float. But in my defence I had never seen the feather/hammer video before today.

Thanks for edumacating me!

"the moon has it's own gravity"?

The moon landings were fake, sheeple!! Don't listen to the lies.

Basically, if an object is large enough (planetary or moon scale), a person or object of human scale will be attracted to it by a gravity-like force

Well no - the nub of the problem is that all objects are gravitationally attracted to each other in proportion to their mass (and inversely proportional to distance). With no atmosphere or wind, there are no forces acting on the dropped pen other than gravity, which means the only direction the pen is going to go is towards the largest gravitational force, which (as Earth is too far away) is that of the moon.

cillit is absolutely right. I was over-simplifying to make it understandable for non-scientists. As Terry Pratchett says "'Y'know,it's very hard to talk quantum using a language originally designed to tell other monkeys where the ripe fruit is. " :-)

It is possible that if you were on a really, really, really tiny moon such as Deimos that all it would take is a good kick to send you out of its orbit -- or at least on a really good long sightseeing trip around it.

But our Moon? Hell, our Moon should really be termed the junior of a double planet. It's a big round thing, you know, and that only happens when there's enough gravity to matter.

No. I recognize that we're all subject to some pretty brutal stresses in this life, and this influences our actions to a certain extent. Sometimes, though, it all comes down to a question of self-preservation.

Some people can do all manner of dirt to others without missing a moment of sleep. Others are just fuck ups that have no real bad intent, but simply a lack of thoughtfullness.

The latter can learn, the former are not deserving of forgivness in any way, shape or form. They're a pox on humanity.

So, I guess it all depends on the circumstances and the people involved.

On the International Space Station, things don't float either. It's just that everything falls at the same rate and it falls in such a way that it won't hit the earth for quite awhile.