0

Guest

Courses New

You are on the flight deck of the orbiting space shuttle Discovery and someone hands you two wooden balls, outwardly identical. One, however, has a lead core but the other does not. Describe several ways of telling them apart.

You are on the flight deck of the orbiting space shuttle Discovery and someone hands you       two wooden balls, outwardly identical. One, however, has a lead core but the other does not.        Describe several ways of telling them apart.

Grade:upto college level

1 Answers

Deepak Patra
askIITians Faculty 471 Points
8 years ago
True weightlessness can be achieved only in deep space. Since the space shuttle is orbiting, thus the space shuttle and astronaut (you) in the space shuttle are not even approximately in an inertial frame. Thus the free fall acceleration appears to be zero in that frame. So, the two balls which have mass but they are weight less in the space shuttle. When the space shuttle moves along a curved path, due to the property of inertia the ball which has greater mass (assume the wooden ball which has lead core) will less displace and the ball which has less mass (wooden ball) will more displace. Therefore you can separate the two wooden balls on the basis of inertia.

Think You Can Provide A Better Answer ?

Other Related Questions on Mechanics

View all Questions »

ASK QUESTION

Get your questions answered by the expert for free

Answer and earn gift vouchers

Win Gift vouchers upto Rs 500/-

View courses by askIITians

Design classes One-on-One in your own way with Top IITians/Medical Professionals

Click Here Know More

Complete Self Study Package designed by Industry Leading Experts

Click Here Know More

Live 1-1 coding classes to unleash the Creator in your Child

Click Here Know More

a Complete All-in-One Study package Fully Loaded inside a Tablet!

Click Here Know More