Our kids are getting ready to go to the State Fair and do a 'lab' on
circular motion.
I also encourage them to get a helium balloon and watch it's motion
as the bus brakes and corners. (windows closed to minimize wind
effects.)
What is the 'weight' of a helium balloon. As I think about this
question, I am more and more convinced that the 'vernacular meaning'
of weight is
the NET contact force acting on the object in question.
This would include sensory deprivation tanks and astronauts in
swimming pools, but these extended, complex objects require us to
consider individual pieces and parts of our anatomy and their
individual sensations.
I'm happy with using the term 'weight' in this sense and don't really
GIVE a rat's rectum what anybody else thinks ;-)
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Chuck Britton Education is what is left when
britton@odie.ncssm.edu you have forgotten everything
North Carolina School of Science & Math you learned in school.
(919) 286-3366 x224 Albert Einstein, 1936