- #1
thomasxc
- 140
- 0
this is quoted from feynman's "surely youre joking, mr. feynman"
"i once did an experiment in the cyclotron lab at princeton that had some startling results. there was a problem in a hydrodynamics book that was being discussed by all the physics students. the problem was this: you have an S-shaped lawn sprinkler- and S-shaped pipe on a pivot- and the water squirts out at right angles to the axis and makes it spin in a certain direction.everyone knows which way it goes around; it backs away from the outgoing water. now the question is this: if you had a lake, or a swimming pool-a big supply of water- and you put the sprinkler completely under water, and sucked the water in, instead of squirting it out, which way would it turn?"
so, which way would it spin?
"i once did an experiment in the cyclotron lab at princeton that had some startling results. there was a problem in a hydrodynamics book that was being discussed by all the physics students. the problem was this: you have an S-shaped lawn sprinkler- and S-shaped pipe on a pivot- and the water squirts out at right angles to the axis and makes it spin in a certain direction.everyone knows which way it goes around; it backs away from the outgoing water. now the question is this: if you had a lake, or a swimming pool-a big supply of water- and you put the sprinkler completely under water, and sucked the water in, instead of squirting it out, which way would it turn?"
so, which way would it spin?