The Invisible G-force: What F1, Sneezing, and Your Washing Machine Have in Common

Simple science and surprising facts for your kids, your friends, and your inner science nerd.

1. Start your engines

Imagine this: you're watching F1: The Movie with your kids, family and friends, popcorn in hand. The cars whip around corners so fast they seem to defy physics. But what you're actually watching is not just speed. It’s a brutal battle with gravity.

Welcome to the world of G-force.

It’s invisible, but its effects are anything but subtle. It pushes you into your seat, yanks your head sideways, and makes ordinary movements feel extraordinary. F1 drivers fight it every lap. Fighter jet pilots train to survive it. Your washing machine spins your socks through it. And yes, you’ve felt it too, on that roller coaster, during takeoff, or when you sneezed a little too hard.

This article is your one-stop shop for everything you didn’t know you wanted to know about G-force. It’s packed with surprising facts, analogies, and real-world comparisons that make science click. Perfect for curious kids, science-loving adults, motorsports fans, and parents looking for fun ways to talk physics over dinner.

By the end, you’ll have:

• A clear, simple understanding of what G-force is.

• Jaw-dropping examples from everyday life (and outer space).

• New lines to share at the dinner table or while waiting for the movie to start.

Here is a quick peek at the G-force values we will cover in this post:

Note: in this plot, we didn’t plot G-force of washing machines, which can be 400G. If we add it, it will make all other items ridiculously small.

Want to know more details? Let’s dive in.

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2. What is G-force, anyway?

Let’s start with something simple: have you ever been pushed back into your seat when a car zooms forward? Or felt your stomach drop on a roller coaster? That weird squishy, floaty, or squashed feeling?

That’s G-force. It’s invisible, but it’s one of the most intense things your body can feel.

“G” stands for gravity, the downward-pulling force you feel when jumping down from a chair. Gravity is the invisible force that keeps our feet planted on Earth instead of flying off like popcorn in a microwave. Right now, as you sit or stand or sprawl on the couch reading this, gravity is pulling you down at 1G (one gravity). That’s normal. That’s Earth saying, “Hey, stay put.”

But here’s the wild part: G-force isn’t just about Earth. It isn’t just downward. When people hear “gravity,” they think down. But G-force doesn’t care which way you’re moving. It shows up when you:

• Slam on the brakes

• Zoom off the line in a fast car

• Whip around a corner (lateral G = squashed sideways like pizza dough)

• Flip through multiple turns in a gymnastics competition

It’s what your body feels when things speed up, slow down, or turn sharply. As long as there’s a change in velocity, G-force will show up.

In scientific terms, G-force is a way of measuring acceleration (or deceleration): how quickly something speeds up (or slows down).

G-force = acceleration ÷ gravity of the Earth

• The Earth’s gravity pulls everything down at about 9.8 meters per second squared. We call that 1G.

• If something accelerates at twice that rate? That’s 2G.

• Three times faster? 3G.

• F1 drivers? They can hit 5 or 6G in a tight corner. That means their bodies feel 5 or 6 times heavier!

• Even just the driver’s head, normally about 11 pounds, plus a 3-pound helmet, now feels like it weighs over 80 pounds. That’s like trying to steer while a large-sized golden retriever is sitting on your head, sliding sideways.

Next time you’re on a swing, riding a rollercoaster, blasting into space, or just simply sneezing really hard (yep, we’ll talk about that later), be aware:

You’re not just playing. You’re doing physics with your body.

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3. Surprising places G-force shows up

Your washing machine is basically a space simulator

Think Formula 1 drivers have it tough?

Try being a towel.

Higher G-forces in a washing machine mean a faster spin, which squeezes more water out of clothes during the spin cycle. That means less time, energy, and money spent on drying and ironing.

An industrial washing machine on a high-speed spin cycle can generate up to 400G. That’s 400 times Earth’s gravity. That’s more G-force than a rocket launch, a roller coaster, or a fighter jet. Even home machines can reach over 100G during their final spin.

No wonder your clothes come out flat, twisted, and exhausted.

Sneezing: the surprising head snap

A powerful sneeze can whip your head forward with up to 2.9G of acceleration. That’s the same G-force as a sharp roller coaster turn or hard braking in a sports car.

It's like your body momentarily forgets you're not in a rocket.

And it happens in just a blink, roughly 0.002 seconds. Fast, fierce, and gone before you know it.

Fighter jet pilots dance with 9G

Military jet pilots can experience up to 9G during extreme turns, rolls, and climbs. That’s nine times your body weight trying to squish you into your seat.

Without special G-suits and trained breathing techniques, pilots would black out in seconds. To stay conscious, they squeeze their muscles and breathe like they’re blowing through a straw underwater.

Flying a jet isn’t just about speed. It’s also about surviving gravity’s full attack.

On Jupiter, you’d be a human pancake

Jupiter’s gravity is 2.5 times stronger than Earth’s. So if you weigh 100 pounds here, you’d feel like 250 pounds on Jupiter.

Your legs would shake. Your arms would struggle to lift themselves. Even blinking might feel like a workout.

And forget jumping. You’d barely get off the ground unless you had very Jupiter-proof knees.

On the Moon, you’d be superman

Gravity on the Moon is only 0.16G, about one-sixth of Earth’s. So if you weigh 100 pounds here, you’d feel like just 16 pounds on the Moon.

You’d float with every step. You could jump six times higher, and lift objects six times heavier.

If you’re a parent, you'd no longer complain about sore arms or aching backs after holding your child all day. On the Moon, your kid feels like a stuffed animal.

A few other fun G-force numbers:

• Fast roller coasters: 3 to 4G for short bursts

• Regular car braking / acceleration: 0.3 to 0.5G

• Tesla Model 3 launch: about 1G

• Commercial plane takeoff: 1.3 to 1.5G

• Astronauts in orbit: microgravity = ~0G

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4. Crazy G-force in F1

Cornering: squashed like pizza dough

In an F1 car, a sharp high-speed turn can hit 5 to 6G of lateral force. That means if a driver normally weighs 150 pounds, during the turn their body feels like it weighs 750 to 900 pounds, all being shoved sideways.

Even just the driver’s head, normally about 11 pounds, plus a 3-pound helmet, now feels like it weighs over 80 pounds. That’s like trying to steer while a large-sized golden retriever is sitting on your head, sliding sideways.

For comparison: the fastest roller coasters max out around 3.5 to 4G. Driving an F1 car? It's like riding the world’s craziest amusement park ride... for 90 minutes straight.

Braking: slammed Into the seat

When drivers hit the brakes from 200 miles per hour, they can experience up to 6.3G of deceleration. That’s more than twice what astronauts feel when launching into space.

Imagine slamming on your bike brakes, only now, the handlebars feel like they weigh six times as much, and your body is trying to fly through the frame. That’s braking in F1.

Acceleration: a ‘gentle’ push off the line

Even acceleration packs a punch. An F1 car launching off the starting line can hit around 2G. That’s like being pushed back into your seat with double your weight pressing you there.

To compare:

• Toyota Camry: about 0.5G

• Tesla Model 3: about 1G

Crashes: when G-force goes off the charts

Most of the time, race car drivers manage G-forces within safe ranges.

But during crashes?

• Max Verstappen hit 51G in a crash at Silverstone in 2021.

• Romain Grosjean survived 67G when his car split and exploded in Bahrain in 2020.

• In 2003, Kenny Bräck endured a jaw-dropping 214G during a crash in IndyCar, and miraculously survived.

To compare:

• 10G can cause most people to black out.

• 100+G sounds impossible. But with the right safety gear and rapid force dissipation, it’s barely survivable.

G-Force is the hidden enemy in motorsports:

• It makes the body heavier.

• It messes with breathing.

• It can blur vision.

• It tests your limits, every single lap.

And yet, drivers stay cool under pressure, with hearts pounding and cars screaming.

Want to try a taste of that at home?

Spin around in an office chair for 10 seconds, stop suddenly, and try to thread a needle.

That’s F1, but way slower and far less likely to make you famous.

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5. Final lap: what G-force teaches us (even if you’re not a race car driver)

Whether you're riding a roller coaster, sneezing your brains out, or watching F1: The Movie, G-force is a quiet reminder that science is always in the driver’s seat.

It’s what makes space travel possible. It’s what turns laundry into a high-gravity tumble. It’s what turns parenting on the Moon into a breeze.

And most importantly, it’s what gives us something incredible to talk about at the dinner table, with kids, with science lovers, with friends, and maybe even with future scientists and astronauts.

So next time your child says, “What’s gravity?” you can smile and say:

"Let me tell you about F1... and my socks."