Let's settle this once and for all. If you wave a flag in an airless world, it will go on waving when you let it go because there is no air to dampen the movement.
2006-07-05 14:49:33 · 9 answers · asked by nick s 6 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
True there's no air, but the internal friction of the flag material will soon dampen the motion of the flag.
2006-07-05 14:53:24 · answer #1 · answered by zee_prime 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you are indirectly referring to the flags planted on the Moon by the Apollo astronauts, they did not wave except when the astronauts were shaking them, and maybe for a couple of seconds after they let go. After that they just hung from their inverted L shaped poles, motionless. With some wrinkles, but motionless. This shows clearly in the videos, if you don't stop the video 2 seconds after they plant the flag.
2006-07-05 16:54:41 · answer #2 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The flag on the moon is totally motionless, but why did it "wave" when they planted on the moon's surface? Well, simply because the top of the flag is suspended by a spring so the flag went up and down to make the motion of "waving".
2006-07-05 14:54:13 · answer #3 · answered by grotonkid1020 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Read the facts. There's no air on the moon but there is some gravity. The flag was supported vertically by its pole, and then horizontallly by a thin "straight wire" (so that, in the abscence of wind, it would not dangle like a flaccid donkey).
If you stick an upside-down L-shaped wire in the ground, OF COURSE it's going to wobble for a bit!
2006-07-05 14:58:10 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
But, there is friction between the particles of the flag. The lunar flag was made of steel mesh. When shaken, the links rubbed against each other; the friction damped the movement out quickly.
2006-07-05 15:52:04 · answer #5 · answered by jackalanhyde 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No it won't. There's a certain minimum of friction and dissipation in any spring even if there's no air around it, and the motion will eventually damp out unless something keeps adding energy to it.
2006-07-05 14:55:55 · answer #6 · answered by Engineer-Poet 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
settle this once and for all?
yeah, and while we are at it, let's settle that annoying question about the kennedy assassination and the existance of God
when a question is turned from a real inquirery into a philosophy you can be sure it will never be answered only once or for all
2006-07-05 15:01:42 · answer #7 · answered by enginerd 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A hypothetical. There is no airless world.
2006-07-05 14:54:02 · answer #8 · answered by chilixa 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
gravity will pull it down to stop the movement.
2006-07-05 14:53:41 · answer #9 · answered by highlander44_tx 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋