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Solution to Micro-Gravity-Challenge

Posted August 19, 2006 4:33 PM

Although the solution to the Micro-Gravity challenge was supplied, it is buried deep into the thread and many would not have noticed. From quite a bit of response, there were only two spot-on replies, posts #7142 and #7146 of the challenge thread. Here is the answer, as sound-boarded against a real relativist.

Ignoring surface effects (or coat all the balls in some hydrophilic substance), the lead balls end up at the top and bottom of the jar, with the plastic balls near the center. The reason is that only the center of mass (COM) of the ISS is on a perfectly natural elliptical orbit. Balls starting the experiment below the COM are traveling a bit too slow for their radial distance from Earth, so they try to go into a lower orbit. Balls starting the experiment above the COM are traveling a bit too fast for their radial distance from Earth, so they try to go into a higher orbit. The water molecules suffer the same fate, so the center of the jar ends up with a little less pressure than the top and bottom, hence buoyancy moves the plastic balls to the center.

The balls can theoretically migrate to the extremities within 20 minutes, ignoring ones that may get stuck due to surface effects. So if the crew does not use thrusters or dumps water in this period, all should be fine for the 'experiment'. Further, we can quite safely ignore mutual gravity between the balls and between balls and other objects - for more, see post #7203 of the challenge.

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#1

relativity4engineers

08/20/2006 12:37 AM

I perused the link to the relativity4engineers web site and even attempted to read through the first two or three pages......there wouldn't happen to be a 'relativity4dummies' web site in the works would there? In spite of my interest in engineering and technology, I am a little late in coming to the game and since my wife and I are currently engaged in raising our ten children, I am forced to relegate my interest to the status of 'hobby'. I would be pleased to find anything that would help me to further my understanding of such subjects in terms that would be within the comprehension of your average plumber(which happens to be my occupation).

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#2
In reply to #1

Re:relativity4engineers

08/20/2006 3:50 AM

In fact there is project on the drawing board, loosely titled "Relativity 4 Everyone", where the math is replaced by explanatory text. But the project plan is not yet done, so in engineering terms, it is still in the concept definition phase.

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#3

Micro-Gravity

08/20/2006 7:57 AM

I love Mirco Gavity as much as the next guy, but I love beer more, so this question is out of my league, but if I had to have a go at things I would say that the lead would be in the bottom, then the plastic, then the water around both. you know the usual, I think.

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#4

Duplicate Post from the Original Question

08/21/2006 3:17 PM

Okay, here is my question. I have no idea how long a laboratory jar is so I can't confirm your solution. However, I would think that you have some issues to overcome. The first one concerns gravity of the lead balls themselves. Early experiments showed two lead balls attracting each other suspended on arms that swing freely. So, there must be some gravitational attraction between the balls that would be significant. Second, I would expect that the radius of the orbit is pretty large and since no dimension of the length of the jar is given (only the material inside is homogonously dispersed), it is difficult to determine if the distance between the lead balls is wide enough to prevent significant interaction and clumping of the lead balls. Second, the distance over which the balls are spread along the axis pointing toward the center of the Earth's mass is long enough to allow segregation above and below the center of mass of the space station (AKA point of orbit).

In other words, I can see a scenario where the balls are close enough to each other that they conjugate together and simply "fall" as a single mass to one end of the jar or another. It would seem to me that there is a critical length to the jar where one scenario would happen and not the other due to interaction between the balls.

What do you think?

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#5
In reply to #4

Re:Duplicate Post from the Original Question

08/22/2006 8:05 AM

I've seen the your post on the original thread first, so I posted a reply there.

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