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From: mwg@petrus.UUCP (Mark Garrett)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Monkey Query (SPOILER, maybe?)
Message-ID: <661@petrus.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 30-Oct-85 11:36:44 EST
Article-I.D.: petrus.661
Posted: Wed Oct 30 11:36:44 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Nov-85 03:16:48 EST
References: <705@sri-arpa.ARPA>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc
Lines: 22

++
> From:  Nichael 
>A [massless] Rope passes over a [frictionless, massless] Pulley.  On one side
> is a Weight [n Kg].  On the other side, level with the Weight, is a Monkey, 
> also weighing n Kg.  Both the Monkey and the Weight are initially at rest.  
>The Monkey [as you might have guessed by now] starts climbing the Rope.  What
> is the motion of the Weight [or for that matter, that of the Monkey]?

OK, let's take a crack at it just for fun (it's been a long time).

Assuming the monkey climbs so smoothly as to resemble a constant force on
the rope (in addition to the force of his weight, which is balanced by the
weight), then he pulls the rope down and the weight up without changing
his height, because there is no fixed object which he could be pulling
against to raise himself.  How's that?  If I'm wrong, I'll work out the
Schroedinger equation for the monkey as penance. :-]

I bet that if you were to hang from such a counterbalanced rope, with
all the friction and non-linearities of real life, you could probably
get the weight to move anywhere you wanted!

-Mark