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Physics Question (1 Viewer)

Mark Fitzsimmons

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I'd appreciate it if you would not attack me personally. As I did post in my explanation, that this is not a thesis defense. Feel free to debate the issue, but leave me personally out of it.

You said earlier that you would have an open mind, but all that I see you is focusing on one minute aspect instead of thinking divergently.
 

BrianW

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And way to go Brian, you are learning that when the environment changes the results change.
Huh? With respect, this is not something I'm currently learning. Indeed, I'm fully aware that environmental factors are always at play, which is why you must always account for them in your measurements. (Hence, my original statement to account for such things.) If you want a pound of feathers sans bouyancy, then pack them in a vacuum sealed bag, evacuate the air, measure the weight, and subtract the weight of the bag.

Oh, and don't forget to account for all that Carbon 14 decay. Or is that too insignificant to mention?
 

Bryan X

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and we're talking only about the substances in question and not different gravities, containers, or wind velocities,
I'm not personally attacking you. I just don't appreciate you assuming I edited my post based on your response.
 

Bryan X

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Sorry for the mistake Brian, that should have been spelled Bryan. Woops.
Don't act so condescending to me. You've taught me nothing. I've understood the fact that environment changes measurements since before you were in diapers.
 

RobertR

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As I suspected, the answer is not valid. The question wasn't about one pound of feathers measuring differently. The question was about one pound of feathers (meaning one actual pound) being different.
 

Mark Fitzsimmons

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I still contend that no one has brought up the ideas contained in my post.

gravities, containers, or wind velocities
This has nothing to do with buoyancy, as buoyancy is present in still air and I did state that my 'experiment' is to be done in still air so we do not have wind pressing the nails/feathers onto the scale or lifting them off.
 

BrianW

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Sorry for the mistake Brian, that should have been spelled Bryan. Woops.
[John Cleese Voice] Indeed? Oh. Well then... Sorry. Best of luck to you, and all that.

Carry on, then. [/John Cleese Voice]


It's all in good fun, Mark. Thanks for the grand finale. :)
 

Bryan X

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I did state that my 'experiment' is to be done in still air so we do not have wind pressing the nails/feathers onto the scale or lifting them off.
But the question said nothing about re-weighing the nails and feathers under a different environment after the initial measurement was taken. The question is just too vague for the answer given.
 

RobertR

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But you DID have air affecting the measurement of the feathers, which was the point of my condition. I clearly stated that no other substance incorporated into the weight measurement could be involved.
 

Mark Fitzsimmons

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I clearly stated that no other substance incorporated into the weight measurement could be involved.
I must have misunderstood you. I thought that you were suggesting that we could not add the weight of the air to the weight of the feathers, which is quite different than what I am doing. We are not necessarily incorporating or adding a substance. Because that substance is air, something indefinitely present in our atmosphere.
 

Mark Fitzsimmons

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No problem. Now I'd appreciate you not assuming I edited my post based on yours and making the claim that I was ignorant of what you were saying.
Again, not trying to sound condescending. But, everything that you have said thus far leads me to believe that you are still missing the big picture. You seem to focus on minute details and criticize specifics when they are really irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps I am not communicating the idea well enough.
 

Bryan X

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Please correct me if I'm wrong.

You are saying that weighing nails and feathers so each measures one pound in the Earths atmosphere is not really one pound because of atmospheric variables. If you subsequently measure them in a vacumm, they will weigh different amounts.

I am just saying that if you change the environment, you can't compare it to your previous measurements because the environment could affect different objects in different ways.
 

Mark Fitzsimmons

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Bryan, yes, that is exactly what I am saying. But the meaning reaches far deeper.

The heart of the idea is that what we percieve here on earth is often skewed. What equals one pound on a scale in our atmosphere is (in the case of the feathers) not the actual weight.

People accept that the feathers weigh a pound without going past the surface to analyze the scenerio further and questioning why the scale reads one pound.

The big picture is this idea of perception and the inacuracy of many of the physics formulas we commonly use.
 

Glenn Overholt

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Sorry, but that was a poorly written question. I think that both the question and the answer should be taken to an English professor.

At any rate, when I first tried to imagine piling a pound of feathers on a scale I knew that they'd be flying all over the place, so I imagined adding a rubber band (and subtracting its wieght, of course) to hold them together.

Glenn
 

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