Physics Question from a Client

---

 

From: David Redacted
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2010 11:59 AM
To: Bruce Bortin; Daniel Redacted; Fayedine Redacted; Fred Redacted; HUGH Redacted; JULIA Redacted
Subject: Re. : A physics question that's been -ONLY- sent to smart people.

Dear All,

I have, already, worked out the answer to the following question.  If one, some or all of you can't figure it out, let me know & I will explain the answer.

Now, w/a drumroll, the question.  If a vehicle is moving, regardless of speed & there are a baloon & a hummingbird, untehered & suspended w/in the passenger compartment of the vehicle & the brakes are applied hard: A)Will the humming bird & ballon trave in the same direction?; B)Will they travel in different directions?, and; C) If the answer is "B,", wich direction will they travel & why?
Dave.

______________________________________

Good question, David!

The hummingbird’s motion will continue in the direction that the van was going and dash it’s tiny brains out against the windshield, which is a real shame, because I love hummingbirds. 

The balloon on the other hand will jerk backwards in the van, and here’s the reasoning behind that.  The balloon gets its buoyancy by being lighter than the air in the van. That is, the air’s acceleration of gravity displaces the balloon in the opposite direction of that acceleration. When the van decelerates, the air inside of it decelerates with it, in the direction of the van’s motion. The balloon accelerates in the opposite direction, because the air’s acceleration is the moral equivalent to acceleration in the gravitational field. 

I put this action inside of the {van} subset of {vehicles} because it’s the most likely vehicle for such a scenario to occur in.  I personally know at least three people who have vans, hummingbirds, and tanks of helium, and are always driving around and about with them.  There’s Jimmy Rotundo and his beige ’78 Econoline, Snaps MacDoof drives a VW van, and another fictional character with a fictional SUV which for the sake of this story I’ve decided to classify as a van, on narrative principle.

Jimmy runs a party balloon business out of his van. Don’t tell the cops, but one of the ‘helium’ tanks in the back of the van is actually filled with nitrous, from which Jimmy will now and then take a huff while he’s on the road.  This often leads to sudden deceleration, just like in your question.  Jimmy’s pet hummingbird Mr Mothman rides in a padded cage, secured on the seat beside him to avoid catastrophic beak trauma and similar.

I hope this answers your question.  All answers assume a robust string theory incorporating exactly 10 spatial dimensions and at least one temporal dimension.  When do you expect the Higgs boson will drop at CERN?

xxBB