Re: What is weight? (was Re: Internal or external?)

[Joel Rauber <Joel_Rauber@SDSTATE.EDU>]

You folks, you keep writing stuff and can't resist commenting on:

Leigh wrote in part:
> The feel of weightlessness (and, consequently, weight) is more
> than the reaction force exerted by the floor. As I pointed out,
> it's not the same as floating neutrally bouyant. If you don't
> understand that, next time you go to the swimming pool, jump
> feet first off the ten meter tower. You'll feel your testicles
> as weightless - dramatically! It is quite a deterrent to going
> off feet first; I much prefer to go head first.

I always preferred jumping off the the high dive feet first rather than head
first.  (Any jokes while not appreciated, may never-the-less be laughed at).

> Many of my students fly experiments on the "vomit comet"
> (Canada is committed to pay for more flights than it can fill).
> I am told that half of them get sick. Fortunately this does not
> happen in our swimming pool at SFU when people float.

Leigh, are you sure you aren't confusing the physiological affects of being
weightless with sudden changes from being weightless to being weightful and
vice versa?  I'm not so sure that the vomiting is due to the weightless part
of the roller coaster; I guess it mostly is caused by the sudden changes in
weightfullness

Joel