This statement puzzles me. What force would cause the tool bag to float away?
Momentum; maybe a slight accidental push. Wouldn't take much.
inertia and the subtle pull of erf’s gravity
“What force would cause the tool bag to float away?”
I don’t understand that either. Why doesn’t that force push the tool bag towards the astronaut? Or go straight up or straight down? Why don’t they have a leash on everything? Was this really an accident? Why doesn’t it stay in orbit? Shouldn’t it take off into infinity? If the tool bag falls to Earth why doesn’t the space station, too? Was the tool bag looking for Joe the Plumber?
You said — “This statement puzzles me. What force would cause the tool bag to float away?”
No force... just “inertia” — a moving object keeps moving and a stationary object stays stationary (unless acted upon by a force).
Soooo..., unless you place it *precisely* still (it’s never “still”, but at least “still” in relation to your own movement) — it will keep on moving, ever-so-slowly — until it’s out of reach, by the next time you look at it.
ALSO, all you have to do is “bump” it (and not know you just did that) and, once again, it would “ever-so-slowly” float away, out of normal reach...
It’s really *so, so, so* easy for things to float away that the *real problem* is how to keep things *from floating away*....