Recent content by Bad Monkey

Is it "mechanical advantage"? I had thought not because I thought that applied only to machines, and I don't see how work is done in these static examples.

Okay I know that, but the only external force acting on the system is the horizontal one from the wind. We end up with a summed force vector in the rode greater than that. I suppose it is just like hanging a weight with two ropes at angles away from vertical - the summed forces of the two ropes...

Just a basic question I am having trouble articulating. A boat is at anchor with a single anchor and a rode with neutral buoyancy. The rode is of such a length and the anchor at such a depth that the rode is at 45 degrees to horizontal. The wind and current pushes horizontally on the boat...

I don't see how "void abhorance" could contribute to lift. It will imply a horizontal drag on the wing, or a vertical drag contributing to a lower terminal velocity if the wing is falling. If the wing is flying and not stalled, I don't see that lowered pressure from relatively static air helps...

Yes but clearly that is not practical, how do you propose to safely dock an incoming ship in a high G environment. The ship will have to not only slow but execute a sustained thrust to match the centripetal acceleration provided by the tension in the cable for the counter weight. That'd be for...

Clearly, it is this principle upon which the space elevator depends. Its counter weight is just dead weight which is orbiting the planet in geo-sync but well above the geo-sync altitude (i.e. it is not in freefall, quite the opposite). The necessary tension in the cable is consequently...

If the ball has perfect elasticity (theoretical), the ground is perfectly solid, and there is no atmosphere, it will bounce forever back to the same height, correct me if I am wrong. In reality of course these conditions can never occur and the answer depends on the degree of the...

I think the OP's query is fairly simply stated. The answer is that action and reaction occur simultaneously and thus yes the reaction is "instantaneous", although it is not really correct to think like that. However the reaction might take some time to propagate. Make sense? I.e., a...

Aw now c'mon. I refuse to let this die.

Ahaha you're all wrong... http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=why-does-the-shower-curta&topicID=13 - For what it's worth, Wikipedia, it's usual reliable self, says that (and I quote): "The shower curtain is blown in my very small ghost trolls that punch your curtain they can only manipulate...

So the red force is that applied by the engine, and the blue force comes from the opposing support force of the plateau. Summed they give a tension in the cable greater than the red H alone. Is this leverage? What do we call it? Am I wrong completely?

This is the same scenario by the way, I'm just trying to make it easier to visualize. Here's a picture, they always help!

I think you are missing something. The horizontal force in the line has to always equal the force applied by the engine, with the tension in the cable equal to that plus the vertical force resulting from the 'leverage' for lack of a better term. I will quote myself: Imagine a different...

I don't think common sense is so common... besides, if we're honest, many phrases which we use in every day life can seem obvious, but upon closer inspection it's found that we're not actually 100% sure what we're talking about...

I think it's an interesting query. I would say that the language semantics, for at least English, imply the following definition: - Initial points of contact on both objects are on a point along their respective motion vectors as drawn from their respective COGs. Or, if there are multiple...