Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Gravity may not seem like a weak force, but it is. The simplest illustration of gravity's weakness is the old 'rub-a-balloon-on-your-hair-and-stick-it-to-the-ceiling' trick. When you do that, the attractive force of maybe ten billion extra electrons on the balloon is enough to hold it up against the gravitational pull of the entire Earth pulling on a billion trillion atoms in the balloon. Gravity is preposterously weak compared to the electromagnetic force." -- Chad Orzel, 2009-08-25 [ thanks to acroyear70 for quoting it earlier (and including the observation from a physics prof that, "it takes gravity 30-something seconds to get you to fall a certain number of stories from the roof of a building...and electro-magnetism a fraction of a fraction of a second to stop you."]