(published on 10/22/2007)
(published on 10/22/2007)
The answer for the strength of the gravitational field, in your coordinates, would be 5.9*10-3 meters/sec2, as in an earlier answer in this thread. That would be the rate at which a dropped ball would fall toward your platform. However, you would not "feel" this gravitational field. In fact, you don't feel any nearly uniform gravitational field, since it would accelerate each part of your body in exactly the same way. That leaves no stresses or strains to trigger any nerve signals. Einstein generalized this fact successfully to form the Equivalence Principle, which states that a uniform gravitational field is undetectable by any physical measurements internal to the measuring system.
In order to keep your platform at a fixed distance from the Sun you need something pushing it away from the sun, say a rocket. What you feel is the push of the rocket-driven platform on the parts of your body in contact with it. If you took the same rocket-driven platform far from any stars, it would feel just the same and the ball would "fall" just the same on it.
Mike W.
(published on 06/05/2013)