Recent content by John Helly

Mahalo. That helps greatly. J.

Aloha. I'm studying Sean Carroll's Spacetime text and just beginning to understand the differential approximations to spacetime curvature. I'm trying to learn general relativity. However, as an oceanographer, I am familiar with the gravimetry satellite measurements and wonder how to reconcile...

Well, this is what I came up with and it's obviously wrong but I don't know why.

Mahalo.

Will do.

Right. More head scratching.

Ok. Correct?

Mahalo. I was trying to interpret it geometrically and could't get the directions right.

This seems to make sense.

Better?

Ok.

Here's what I came up with. I can see it when it rotates down but still seems kind of odd.

Will do.

Good point. So it looks like the original published answer is correct.

That's what is given as an answer in the solutions. I don't think it's correct. I think the answer is backwards. I think the horizontal force on the vertical wall should be Fw=(1/cos(alpha)) * kg-wt. Not Fw=tan(alpha)*kg-wt. It sounds like you agree. I'll try to draw a decent diagram and...