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The Big Question


boon racoon

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no..only joking. we had that question years ago.

think about THIS

if you put a slinky spring at the top of an esculator which was travelling upwards, and pushed the slinky down...what would happen?! what if the esculator was going the same speed as the slinky?

any ideas? cos...i dunno (Y)

Edited by the boon
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no..only joking. we has that question years ago.

think about THIS

if you put a slinky spring at the top of an esculator which was travelling upwards, and pushed the slinky down...what would happen?! what if the esculator was going the same speed as the slinky?

any ideas? cos...i dunno (Y)

If the speeds were correct, yes, it would go on for ever and ever like the duracell bunnys.

No a fly cannot stop a train, but, the fly does stop.

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no..only joking. we has that question years ago.

think about THIS

if you put a slinky spring at the top of an esculator which was travelling upwards, and pushed the slinky down...what would happen?! what if the esculator was going the same speed as the slinky?

any ideas? cos...i dunno (Y)

It would continue to move forward, but not move if you get me. Like it'll do it's cashink cashink cashink thing but not actually go further down. And a fly could stop a train. If it was a giant fly.

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If a fly was buzzing around in the drivers area and sat down on the brake pedal (or whatever trains use), the driver would stamp on the pedal to kill the fly, thus stopping the train.

So, a fly can stop a train. Albeit a dead one.

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Momentum (kgm/s) = mass (kg) x velocity (m/s) yeh?

So if the train's going really slowly, say 10 m/s (same as a sprinter), and weighs what, 10 (metric) tonnes (= 10,000kg), so it's momentum = 10,000 * 10 = 1,000,000 kgm/s.

And a fly weighs what 1g (=0.001kg)?

Under the "conservation of momentum", ignoring air resistance etc, this means that if a fly which had a mass of 1g was going at 1,000,000,000 m/s (2,236,000,000 miles an hour), then it could stop a train which had a mass of 10 tonnes and was going at 10 m/s (22.36mph)

Man I'm bored. (Y)

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Momentum (kgm/s) = mass (kg) x velocity (m/s) yeh?

So if the train's going really slowly, say 10 m/s (same as a sprinter), and weighs what, 10 (metric) tonnes (= 10,000kg), so it's momentum = 10,000 * 10 = 1,000,000 kgm/s.

And a fly weighs what 1g (=0.001kg)?

Under the "conservation of momentum", ignoring air resistance etc, this means that if a fly which had a mass of 1g was going at 1,000,000,000 m/s (2,236,000,000 miles an hour), then it could stop a train which had a mass of 10 tonnes and was going at 10 m/s (22.36mph)

Man I'm bored. (Y)

HAHA, thats quite true! lol

BUT!!! I know how it can really stop an electric train... it may fly into the main electric wire/cable, and then it might explode and the train will blow up, then eventually it will stop???

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Momentum (kgm/s) = mass (kg) x velocity (m/s) yeh?

So if the train's going really slowly, say 10 m/s (same as a sprinter), and weighs what, 10 (metric) tonnes (= 10,000kg), so it's momentum = 10,000 * 10 = 1,000,000 kgm/s.

And a fly weighs what 1g (=0.001kg)?

Under the "conservation of momentum", ignoring air resistance etc, this means that if a fly which had a mass of 1g was going at 1,000,000,000 m/s (2,236,000,000 miles an hour), then it could stop a train which had a mass of 10 tonnes and was going at 10 m/s (22.36mph)

Man I'm bored. (Y)

Sadly that's about 3x the speed of light... Special Relativity anyone?

Jon

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wouldn't the friction of the slinky and the slinky/esculator contact points eventually cause the to deccelerate and wouldn't be able to 'slink' downwards fast enough to counteract the upwards movement of the esculator.

though this doesn't matter if you assume the slinky is frictionless and the slinky/esculator has a co-effiecent of zero

mike

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Momentum (kgm/s) = mass (kg) x velocity (m/s) yeh?

So if the train's going really slowly, say 10 m/s (same as a sprinter), and weighs what, 10 (metric) tonnes (= 10,000kg), so it's momentum = 10,000 * 10 = 1,000,000 kgm/s.

And a fly weighs what 1g (=0.001kg)?

Under the "conservation of momentum", ignoring air resistance etc, this means that if a fly which had a mass of 1g was going at 1,000,000,000 m/s (2,236,000,000 miles an hour), then it could stop a train which had a mass of 10 tonnes and was going at 10 m/s (22.36mph)

Man I'm bored. (Y)

Mike, you forgot to allow for the increase in mass of the fly.

Let's see, a train has that has relativistic mass 10 tonnes and is traveling at say 100ms^1. Then it's momentum is 10,000,000 kgms^-1.

So the fly needs a momentum of 10,000,000 kgms^-1.

Now somethings mass at speed is given by m=m0/(1-(v/c)^2)^1/2

We now have 2 unknown's, relativistic mass and speed, I'm too lazy to finish it, one of you can. :P :)

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if the fly and train were indestructable and the fly travelled at a very high speed and collided head-on, yes.

but in reality, not really.

*cough* trains indestructable too :P Maybe they would stop each other lol does that count? (Y)

Pete

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point is, the fly must be either obese or on drugs to stop the train.

BUT they fly cannot simply be going forwards once instant, and then the next be going backwards. It must stop before it changes direction. So if it stops, the train stops (Y)

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BUT they fly cannot simply be going forwards once instant, and then the next be going backwards.  It must stop before it changes direction.  So if it stops, the train stops  (Y)

But the train can't stop, that would mean it would stop and start without anyone knowing.

There for going from 0mph to 50 mph instantly, which is impossible.

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But the train can't stop, that would mean it would stop and start without anyone knowing.

There for going from 0mph to 50 mph instantly, which is impossible.

The fly does stop the train, we concurred this matter on the trialskings forum about 23 years ago.

Another question... can a candle burn in space? Give reasons. There is oxygen in the space shuttle.

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well mike...

i didn't see it like that :)

I used the formula: (conservation of momentum)

m1u1 + m2u2= m1v1 + m2v2

lets say m1 is the train (10,000kg) and m2 is the fly (0.001kg)

as you said..the train is moving at 10m/s

using the COM:

10,000(10) + 0.001(u2) = 10,000(v1) + 0.001(v2)

you see...we don't know how fast the fly will "bounce" off the train yet...but, we'll say that the train stops...therefore:

100,000+ 0.001u2= 0.001v2

To work out how fast the fly will bounce at...i'll use newton's coefficient of restitution:

e= speed of separation/ speed of approach

now lets assume e is between o and 1 (reasonable :P )....

therefore e= v2/10-u2

so v2= 10e - eu2

We know that 100,000 + 0.001u2= 0.001v2

so 100,000 + 0.001u2= 0.001(10e- eu2)

100,000 + 0.001u2= 0.01e - 0.001eu2

lets say e=1 (now)

therefore 0.001u2= 0.01-0.001u2 - 100,000

u2= -49999995 m/s

If e=0

u2= -100000000 m/s

don't worry that they are -ve (they are moving in the opposite dir. to the train...)

if v2= 10e - eu2

v2= 50000005

= 5.0 x 10^7m/s

I don't know who is right..i'v done some assuming....and typing it out gets really confusing :P

my speed is possible....with a big gun (Y)

anyways...anyone else doing mechanics 2 tomorrow?

adam

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now lets assume e is between o and 1 (reasonable  (Y) )....

anyways...anyone else doing mechanics 2 tomorrow?

adam

The coefficient of restitution is always between 0 and 1. I don't think it would be much bigger than 0. How high would a fly bounce off a glass surface? Simplifying things greatly: If the coefficient is 1 then the object bounces back up to the height from which it was dropped.

M2 is piss, but hope it goes well.

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