Originally Posted By: kallog
Maybe Newton's laws should be changed to "An object will always be in a state of freefall unless acted on by a force"

Freefall can include linear motion too, like a rock flying through space or the moon orbiting the earth.

I like that. It's exactly right: "always be in a state of freefall" = "always follow a timelike geodesic". Ín other words, unless acted upon by a force, the vector of the object is determined solely by the geometry of space-time.

"Time is what prevents everything from happening at once" - John Wheeler