Adjusting to changes in gravity and pressure
You go to sleep one day, and wake up on a different planet. Let's say the atmosphere of this planet has about the same composition as on Earth. Actually, this planet has pretty much all of the same physical properties as Earth. However, this planet has $4.5\ M_\oplus$ (Earth mass), and $1.8\ R_\oplus$ (equatorial radius of Earth), and as such, the acceleration due to gravity has increased to $1.4\ g$.
Obviously, the local flora and fauna has evolved to survive in these conditions. My question is two-part:
- How does this change in gravity generally affect the atmospheric pressure at the surface of this planet? I say generally, because I understand that there are probably other complicated factors to consider when figuring out atmospheric pressure, but I've had a hard time finding a general equation to figure out just how a change in gravity would change atmospheric pressure. Is it just a 1:1 increase?
- How would you feel waking up on this planet? That is, what effects would the increase in gravity/atmospheric pressure be on your body, and without any mechanisms or devices to help you adapt, how long would it take (or would you be able) to adjust to these new conditions?
(There are likely other physical properties of this planet that are different due to the increase in mass/radius, however, at this point I'm only interested in the effects of acceleration due to gravity and atmospheric pressure. But if you can think of other properties of this planet that would present an immediate physiological challenge in this scenario, feel free to comment!)
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/15551. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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