The gap between the orange and grey balls is how far the cannonball has fallen from its straight-line path.
Prompt 02 — The proof
📝 Prompt to use in your LLM
Update the simulation: always draw a red arrow on the cannonball pointing to Earth's centre, proving gravity never stops acting. Also draw a grey 'ghost ball' starting from the cannon that travels in a straight line as if gravity were off. The growing gap between the orange ball and the grey ghost is how far the real ball has 'fallen'.
🧑🏫 Teaching Note:
This is where the magic happens. The misconception was: 'astronauts float because gravity stops in space.' Two visual cues kill it together. The red arrow stays attached to the ball at full strength even during a perfect orbit — gravity never disappears. The ghost ball flies off in a straight line, showing what would happen WITHOUT gravity. The orange ball curves because gravity IS acting. Ask students: 'If gravity stopped, where would the ball go?' — straight off into space, like the ghost. So gravity is what KEEPS satellites in orbit, not the absence of it. The ball is constantly falling — it just keeps missing Earth.