Overweight Truck Crossing a Bridge

[physicsss]

A truck carrying chickens is too heavy for a bridge that it needs to cross. The empty truck is within the weight limits; with the chickens it is overweight. It is suggested that if one could get the chickens to fly around in the truck by banging on the truck side, it would be safe to cross the bridge. Do you agree? Explain.

I'd agree if you could get the chickens banging on the sides of the truck so that the force they exert on the truck is sideways and not downward as it would be if they are stationary. Any suggestions or insights that I'm missing to solve this problem?

Thanks in adv.

 

[PPonte]

Funny!
My humble opinion is that if the chickens only exert on the truck a sideway force, they will fall since there is no force counteracting the weight.

 

[HallsofIvy]

A truck carrying chickens is too heavy for a bridge that it needs to cross. The empty truck is within the weight limits; with the chickens it is overweight. It is suggested that if one could get the chickens to fly around in the truck by banging on the truck side, it would be safe to cross the bridge. Do you agree? Explain.

I'd agree if you could get the chickens banging on the sides of the truck so that the force they exert on the truck is sideways and not downward as it would be if they are stationary. Any suggestions or insights that I'm missing to solve this problem?

Thanks in adv.

Yes, I suggest that you read the problem more closely. Nothing is said about chickens banging on the sides of the truck, it is about you banging on the sides of the truck in order to make the chickens fly!
The "idea" would be that, in flight, the chickens weight would not affect the truck. Of course, one would have to consider that the air that is supporting the chickens is supported by the truck.