I've been part of a space industry non-profit that partners with the Government of Canada to put experiments run by students on planes that do "parabolic flights" to simulate "weightlessness" while falling. Around when I first started, I proposed writing the term "zero gravity" on a webpage we were updating. But as my supervisor adamantly noted at the time, that would have been inaccurate.
The convention was to never use the term "zero gravity," since using that term would perpetuate a common misunderstanding. Instead, we've used the term "microgravity" in its place—which makes sense, as there are still small gravitational forces acting on every object in space.
The convention was to never use the term "zero gravity," since using that term would perpetuate a common misunderstanding. Instead, we've used the term "microgravity" in its place—which makes sense, as there are still small gravitational forces acting on every object in space.
NASA also published a webpage with a good explanation of what microgravity is, with a nice diagram of how it works (including a visual of the parabolic flight): https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/for-kids-and-student...