What If Gravity Got Weaker and Couldn't Stop?

A warm afternoon in your park. You throw a basketball up and it comes down a little late. Then later. Gravity is getting weaker, everywhere, a little more every second, and it isn't stopping. You dunk for the first time in your life, swing higher and slower than you ever have, jump over your own street, and watch the pond boil and freeze at the same moment. Then the sky goes black, the ground starts to crack, and everything that isn't tied down lets go. What is real: every threshold on the ladder. Mars pulls with 38% of Earth's gravity, the Moon 17%, Pluto 6%, Ceres 3%, so 154 lb (70 kg) reads 59 lb (26.6 kg), 25 lb (11.6 kg), 9.7 lb (4.4 kg) and 4.4 lb (2.0 kg) there. With the same air weighing less, the air pressure falls with gravity: as thin as the top of Everest (4.9 psi, 33.7 kPa) at a third of today's gravity, the Armstrong limit (0.9 psi, 6.3 kPa, where water boils at body heat, 98.6 °F / 37 °C) at about 6%, and a 59 °F (15 °C) pond boils at 1.7%. Boiling takes heat away, so the pond freezes while it boils. At the equator the ground moves at 1,040 mph (1,670 km/h); below 0.35% of today's gravity nothing holds it there. At 51.5° north the Earth's spin lifts loose things once gravity falls below 0.13%, and it lifts a bench and a feather at the same moment. What is not real or not known: nothing makes gravity weaken like this. Exactly when the air would pour away is an estimate (it starts leaking at about 8% and blows off around 1%). The way the Earth breaks apart, the speed of the whole thing, and you still breathing with no air are made up. You started the afternoon weighing 154 pounds (70 kg). You end it lighter than a sheet of paper, and nothing left to come down to. CHAPTERS 0:00 Your park 0:12 The ball comes down late 0:44 You touch the rim 0:56 Mars 1:13 The swings 1:40 The top of Everest 2:10 The Moon 2:35 One jump: seven seconds 2:49 A coffee boils 3:20 Over the treetops 3:50 Over the rooftops 4:19 The pond boils and freezes 4:46 The air leaves 5:32 The equator #whatif #science #gravity #space #physics