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chamberDoes the physicist, checking for momentum conservation in a bubble
photograph, worry about the earth providing a moving frame of reference=
or do they operate as we do in a conventional lab, assume the lab is an=
inertial frame?
He doesn't have to. The quantity which is important in collisions is the=
impulse exchanged. These interactions take place over such a short time
that any impulse due to gravitational forces is utterly unobservable,
though the gravitational forces are in principle quite observable.
That's a good problem to give your students, however. Many will say "The=
gravitational force is just too small to matter". That is not the case, =of
course. If the particles stuck around for a tenth of a second in the spa=rk
chamber they would fall just as far as a tennis ball in the same time. T=he
question will test whether or not they are thinking.
Leigh