Saturday, November 24, 2007

Weekend Brain Teaser.



Two objects are falling to Earth.

One weighs 10 pounds, the other 20.

Which one falls faster? (disregard air resistance)

Ill post the answer after a while, if anyone tries of course.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

My physics teacher would say "BZZZZT! You cant talk of things weighing anything out in space!" Was this a trick question or did you just assume those'd be their weights at rest on Earth?

Anonymous said...

The question is unanswerable unless certain assumptions are made; e.g., the objects start from rest at the same distance from Earth.

Anonymous said...

Is it 10 pounds of feathers? or 10 pounds of lead?

Just wondering.

MensaRefugee said...

Peewee,
Assumed those would be the weights on earth. But if you like it technical, lets say Object 1 has a mass of 10 Kilograms, and Object 2 has a mass of 20 Kilograms.

Anon1,
KEeping it simple. Assume they are the same in everyway except for the weight/mass

Anon2,
As air resistance is disregarded, to my mind, it does not matter. But whatever makes it easier for you to visualize is fine. Frankly, I imagine two heavy metallic orbs.

MensaRefugee said...

P.S
If anyone has trouble with disregarding Air Resistance, replace "Earth" with "Airless Barren Planet"

Anonymous said...

They hit the surface at the same time. Duh. Google Galileo.

MensaRefugee said...

Thats one answer. Ill wait for a few more.

Please give reasons if you can... "google galileo...duh" doesnt fall into the category of reason nor proof.

:)

DissidentMan said...

Supposing they are theoretical point masses not located at the same point then we can suppose that the large object will be pull the smaller objeect toward it, and to a lesser it extent it will cause the earth to accelerate toward it moreso than the smaller object will. Therefore I reckon that the larger object, if given time, will inevitably end up going faster than the smaller one, relative to the earth. Disclaimer: (i know nothing about physics. i am just guessing, thinking that the earth's own acceleration toward objects isn't normally considered, because its usually negligable).