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What if gravity stopped for one minute a day?

Every day at noon, gravity switches off for sixty seconds. Anything that isn’t tied down floats up, then crashes back down.

2 min readUpdated

Noon. The chairs have left the terrace.

Noon. The chairs have left the terrace.

< 0.1%chance it
ever happens

< 0.1%chance this ever happens

Could it actually happen?

Gravity comes from the mass of the Earth, and the Earth doesn’t take breaks. No experiment, in a lab, a mine or in orbit, has ever switched it off, even for a second. Astronauts float because they are constantly falling around the planet, not because gravity has stopped.

The minute

At noon, cups lift off café tables. A cyclist grabs a lamp post. For sixty seconds the street is full of floating chairs, hats and one very confused dog.

Then gravity comes back and everything falls at once. For the next hour, the city sounds like breaking glass.

The first month

Furniture gets bolted to the floor. A siren sounds at 11:59 every day, and schools practise holding on the way they practise fire drills.

Hospitals stop surgery at a quarter to twelve. Every bus gets straps, and drivers pull over and wait for the minute to pass.

The minute is over, and the street is covered in glass.
The minute is over, and the street is covered in glass.

A year later

Most people find something to hold and wait. A few pay to float on purpose in padded halls, and it becomes a popular way to spend a lunch break.

Nobody walks anywhere at noon. Cafés serve breakfast and then open again at one, and no one books a table for twelve.

Ten years on, everyone holds a strap at noon and counts to sixty.
Ten years on, everyone holds a strap at noon and counts to sixty.

Who wins

  • Makers of straps and boltsEvery chair, cup and pram needs tying down.
  • Padded hallsFloating on purpose becomes a hobby people pay for.
  • People who like a routineOne minute a day that is always exactly the same.

Who loses

  • GlassWhatever goes up comes down on the pavement.
  • Anyone on a balconyAt noon, the railing is all that matters.
  • CafésNobody wants to be sitting outside at twelve.
  • Loose dogsA minute is a long time when your paws leave the ground.

The catch

For one minute the city floats, and then it falls. The real Earth never pauses like that, which is good news for every window in the world.

Could you get used to this?

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