Over the past few years, the MICROSCOPE spacecraft performed precision experiments to test the difference between gravitational mass, which governs how strongly matter responds to gravity, and inertial mass, which is the measure of resistance to being pushed. Our modern theory of gravity, Einstein’s general theory of relativity, says these masses are equivalent, which is (among many other things) why your stomach sometimes goes whoopsy when you’re driving fast over the crest of a hill, or when an airplane hits a bit of turbulence. To accompany the announcement of the final MICROSCOPE results, the American Physical Society’s Physics Magazine commissioned a comic from me and artist Maki Naro.
The Equivalence Principle under a MICROSCOPE
