Recent content by jackrabbit

I was trying to figure out the following - assume you have an old fashioned balance scale, with two pans hanging from a lever with a fulcrum in the middle of the lever. On one side you have a weight of X, and on the other side you have a weight Y. If Y is big enough, that side of the scale...

Thanks. This is great. So, 15 cw and the rod points down on the right side. I had considered that possibility at one point but dismissed it since I thought point X could not be the fulcrum with respect to the 2 pound force since it is actually lifting the rod down off of point X, rather...

Point A Point X 11 pounds 5 inches 5 inches ↑ 5 inches 5 inches _________________________________________________________________ 2 pounds 8 pounds ↓ ↓ Assume the horizontal line is a rod that is 20 inches long. The 11 pounds upward force is from a cable tied to...

I don't know. My gut says it should be the full 10 pounds plus water pressure, but I am having trouble figuring out why it wouldn't be less given the buoyancy of the top half (perhaps less than 10 pounds for the tube but then add water pressure?).

Suppose you had a hollow tube, closed at both ends. The tube weighs 10 pounds and would float in water. Suppose also there is an empty container with a hole at the bottom. The tube is stuck through the hole so that half of it is in the tank and half is sticking out the bottom. Assume a...

My ten year old asked the following question - why doesn't gravity pull the atmosphere all the way down to the surface of the earth?

Thanks Russ Watters. Yes, I suppose it should flow from the high pressure to the low pressure zone, but if the water is in a closed container, there is nowhere for the water to flow. So, I assume the pressure just builds in the corner until equilibrium is reached. Is that the way it works...

Water pressure in triangular container I'm trying to figure out whether water pressure is uniform across the bottom of a container shaped like a right triangle. Imagine that one of the shorter sides is the base, so there is a 90 degree angle on one side of the base and an acute angle on the...

To further elaborate on the question, if the shelf extended all the way across, so that it effectively cut the water tank in half, presumably the pressure at the bottom of the tank would be cut in half as well, right? Or not? But if I leave any space between the shelf and and the side, then...

Thanks. Why is that the case? Why wouldn't the shelf (or the cave) carry the pressure of the water above it (and if it were strong enough, not transfer the pressure to the water below it)?

I understand that water pressure is solely a function of the weight of the water column (plus atmospheric pressure) above a given point in the body of water. Ignoring atmospheric pressure, assume that a water column above a given point at the bottom of a tank of water is 10 pounds. Assume...