Re: [Phys-L] ? FCI --> momentum flow

[Bruce Sherwood <Bruce_Sherwood@ncsu.edu>]

No, there isn't any problem with what you've said. I was making a comment
about glib comments I've often seen about Newton's cradle, comments that
seemed to me vacuous. (I did try reloading the page yesterday, to no avail,
but now I see it.)

Bruce


On Sun, Oct 13, 2013 at 9:33 PM, John Denker <jsd@av8n.com> wrote:

> On 10/13/2013 08:04 PM, Bruce Sherwood wrote:
> > At http://www.av8n.com/physics/force-intro.htm I don't see anything
> about
> > Newton's cradle. What am I missing?
>
> It's there now.  Try hitting the reload button.
>
> > I've always been uncomfortable with statements to the effect that
> Newton's
> > cradle "proves momentum is conserved" or some such
>
> Well, I don't claim that it proves anything.  I also don't claim
> to /predict/ what any such apparatus will do.  I'm looking through
> the other end of the telescope:  *GIVEN* that we observe empirically
> that the ball #1 swings in and ball #5 goes flying out, *THEN* the
> best way to describe it is that momentum flowed through balls #2, 3,
> and 4.
>
> Is there a problem with that?
>
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