Re: Name that force

[SSHS KPHOX <kphox@CHERRYCREEKSCHOOLS.ORG>]

Forum for Physics Educators <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu> writes:
> A cloud producing rain
> is replaced be a shower-head staying above the
> car. In that way the BACK wall and the FRONT
> wall are dry. Will the car still be slowing down at
> a rate proportional to the rate at which the mass
> is increasing? I do not think so.

Why would it slow down at all? It has horizontal momentum already if the
showerhead follows the car. The falling KE will become increased thermal
energy.

I have to confess that I have found this interesting, but after a day of
it I wonder what Ludwik's question really was. Was it a name or a
mechanism? The latter would be most complex if we delve to the level of
the individual rain drops. I was thinking on a highly simplified level.

Ken Fox