In-class question

An astronaut floating weightlessly in orbit shakes a large iron anvil rapidly back and forth. She reports back to Earth that

BLUE: the shaking costs her no effort because the anvil has no inertial mass in space.

YELLOW: the shaking costs her some effort but considerably less than on Earth.

PURPLE: although weightless, the inertial mass of the anvil is the same as on Earth.




Physics 2010 home page. Prof. Pollock's home page. Physics Dep't
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Physics 2010 home page. Prof. Pollock's home page. Physics Dep't
Send me your comments