will it take off?

[patrick_g]

Pat -- let me rephrase my question in a non-theological way.

Imagine our plane is equipped with only one wheel.

OK, not too tough, I have built flying models with only one wheel. I have flown soaring planes built with only one wheel. This is not that uncommon in soaring planes. Nothing hard to imagine. I will allow as to how I have never seen a full sized powered plane (regular or powered glider) made with only one wheel.

Pat

 

[rback33]

OK. I KNEW this thread would "take off" again...but WOW never did I think it would to this extent. You guy have me bustin a gut over here.

 

[patrick_g]

OK. I KNEW this thread would "take off" again...but WOW never did I think it would to this extent. You guy have me bustin a gut over here.

For subscribers to or borrowers of PopSci and PopMech (don't recall which it was in but probably PopSci) there is a blurb on an ALMOST magic conveyor. A wind tunnel blowing air over a really fast conveyor made of a really thin stainless belt. It is for studying aerodynamics of race cars and the belt is so thin the changes in the contact patch of the tires as wind speed is varied is observed. I think it rents for $30,000/hr.

Pat

 

[daTeacha]

Pat, I have one of those tops somewhere around here at school. The parts on either side of the equator are not equal -- there is an uneven distribution of mass along the spin axis I think the precession wobble gets bad enough to cause the bottom to slide out from under the top. At that point the thing is spinning on the mystical axis passing across the equator, but that causes a lot of angular momentum. Then it turns to the upside down postition to minimize angular momentum, or something along those lines.

That is neither here nor there, though, since the spinning on the original axis stops while it's doing all those acrobatics.

For the rest of you because Pat probably knows the answer --
Will a candle burn in the space shuttle?

 

[daTeacha]

Rich...I was just funning around man.

BTW, maybe your red tractor is really orange, and green is really blue. How do ya describe a MF to a blind person? QUOTE]

When I started in this business of teaching, I spent 5 years in inner city schools -- junior highs in Flint and Muskegon, Michigan. In those places, an MF was not something you talked about unless you were having a heated discussion with someone, and then the subject was usually not tractors. Typically, the kids involved in the discussion were not blind, although one was. His visual impairment did not seem to interfere with his using the term in a manner which convinced me he understood fully what it meant.

 

[MossRoad]

... What I don't understand is why everyone wants to bury the survivors. Haven't they suffered trauma enough?

Pat

Very good!

 

[Egon]

We work on the assumption that all the survivors will age and pass on.

 

[TomOfTarsus]

For the rest of you because Pat probably knows the answer --
Will a candle burn in the space shuttle?

[Assumes the Space Shuttle is in orbit... and the wick has been kissed by a flame... ]

It will, as the wax is moved to the flame by capillary action against gravity. With no gravity, it ought to burn slightly better... and I think the atmosphere may be slightly richer in oxygen on the Shuttle, at least until the candle burns it all up and goes out...

 

[patrick_g]

My desk calendar recently had a cartoon of a space ship on the moon. One astronaut (on the surface) is apparently replying to a question from his impatient companion in the doorway of the ship as the outside guy is standing beside a charcoal grill. The guy at the grill says, "No, the coals are NOT ready yet, what do you expect with no oxygen!"

HOOOOOONK!!! OK, time's up.

The greatest effect on the candle flame is not the oxygen concentration difference between Earth and the shuttle but the microgravity which does not support convection. If there were no ventilation fans running and everyone stayed still untill the air motion ceased then a candle flame might self extinguish by depleting the oxygen adjacent to the flame.

Since the air is not static, due to crew motion and ventilation systems, the candle would probably burn (some) but erratically without the nice flame shape we are so accustomed to seeing. As previously correctly mentioned the capillarity of the wax in the wick will supply fuel to the end of the wick. Depending on several factors, including the melting point of the candle, in the absence of a molten pool of wax (held in place on Earth by gravity) the candle flame will NOT be fed at so nearly a constant rate as if it were on Earth.

Pat

 

[turnkey4099]

[Assumes the Space Shuttle is in orbit... and the wick has been kissed by a flame... ]

It will, as the wax is moved to the flame by capillary action against gravity. With no gravity, it ought to burn slightly better... and I think the atmosphere may be slightly richer in oxygen on the Shuttle, at least until the candle burns it all up and goes out...

Depends on local conditions. If set on a table in absolutely motionless air, it will go out. Any draft would keep it burning.

Harry K