Physics question

[peasea]

Does adding weight effect the maximum velocity of a self propelled body in atmosphere?

Ask a donut-eating copper in an I-car.

[Big Dave]

[Skyryder]

I'm going to go with yes it can move, but no it can't be moved because there's nothing to apply any force to it...the sound of one hand clapping innit?

There is no physical force to prevent movement so yes the ball could move but as the tennis ball is the only object in the universe there would need to be an additional object (force as you rightly state) to cause its motion and on this basis the tennis ball could not move as it is the only object. This is the logical answer to the question. But it is not the right one as the question asks can the tennis ball move? Yes it can………No it can not. This is the quandary that the question poses.


Movement, speed, motion etc can only be detected by the position of a secondary object and as such is not part of the answer as the tennis ball is the only object. Herein lies the problem. As there is no way to determine movement does this in itself prohibit movement. Logic would dictate no nor is there any physical barrier to movement.

But movement can only be defined with a secondary object but as there is no secondary object in the question the tennis ball can not be moved as there is no force to move it. But even this analysis of the question is wrong as it assumes that the ball ‘is’ moving and as such needs a secondary object (energy force etc) to create movement. The question makes no statement that the ball is moving or not. It asks can the ball move period.

Like the koan you quoted the question imposes a conceptualization that we can not comprehend and as such is impossible to give a definitive answer one way or the other. But as you no doubt know koan solutions have nothing to do with the problem posed.

But you can get into some strange places trying.


Skyryder

[ready4whatever]

hmm not sure but theory is different from practical. I remember my teacher telling me that if you had a lever long enough you could lift an entire town with your body weight. But try doing it. You wouldnt find a lever that strong, or long, you'd run out of flat land, and so on

[Pixie]

My kitty's breath smells of fish

[cheesemethod]

Thanks for all the educated and not so educated but albeit humorous answers. Has anybody calculated rolling resistance of a motorcycle before? I'm curious to see how much force in that vs drag from the air.