can someone help with the question below, it really give me a hard time
"thought experiments" were to be conducted on moving trains or rocket ships. Answer following question:
1. What would the results of the free fall experimen be if you set the apparatus up and took data on a train moving at constant velocity?
2. What if the train were accelerating?
3. What would the results of this "thought experiments" be if you did this experiment repeatedly on a rocket ship traveling from earth to moon at constant velocity?
2 answers
I'm no physics scholar, but I'll try... If the train were moving in a straight line at content speed there would be no effect at all on free fall acceleration. As for the rocket, if your in outerspace then there's no gravity to allow for free fall as we know it.
As for the train accelerating (on level ground) The rate of free fall would not change except it would fall diagonally & may even hit the back end of the train before the floor if the acceleration were too great