Re: OT: Speed of light [was Re: Why not a Python compiler?]
- From: Erik Max Francis <max@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:05:47 -0800
Robert Bossy wrote:
Grant Edwards wrote:After repeated attempts at the tasks set for them in the
experiments, the subjects would learn strategies that would
work in a Newtonian world, but the initial intuitive reactions
were very non-Newtonian (regardless of how educated they were
in physics).
I'm pretty sure we can still hear educated people say that free fall speed depends on the weight of the object without realizing it's a double mistake.
Well, you have to qualify it better than this, because what you've stated in actually correct ... in a viscous fluid. Terminal speed is reached when the force due to gravity is equal and opposite to the drag force, and the drag force is dependent on the properties of the fluid, as well as the size and mass of the object that is falling through it.
It's only when you're dealing with objects falling through vacuum that all objects fall at the same rate, and that's because the gravitational and inertial masses are identical.
--
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