Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!wallace From: wallace@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (David E. Wallace) Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Re: Monkey Query (SPOILER, maybe?) Message-ID: <10855@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: Thu, 31-Oct-85 13:48:03 EST Article-I.D.: ucbvax.10855 Posted: Thu Oct 31 13:48:03 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 2-Nov-85 03:24:41 EST References: <705@sri-arpa.ARPA> <661@petrus.UUCP> Reply-To: wallace@ucbvax.UUCP (David E. Wallace) Organization: University of California at Berkeley Lines: 18 In article <661@petrus.UUCP> mwg@petrus.UUCP (Mark Garrett) writes: >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. :-] Assuming the rocket engine fires so smoothly as to resemble a constant force, the spaceship doesn't move in outer space, because there is no fixed object which it could be pushing against, right? Now that we've proved that rockets don't work (:-), how about applying Newton's law to both. Since action = reaction, the rope exerts the same force on the monkey as the monkey exerts on the rope (which is transmitted to the weight, via the frictionless pulley and the massless rope). Hence both monkey and weight rise at the same rate. Let's see that Schroedinger equation (:-)! Dave Wallace (...!ucbvax!wallace wallace@ucbkim.berkeley.edu)