on the moon.

[revil]

I'll explain soon...

[sho.gun]

it'll float away

[sho.gun]

ok so it's not a trick question, it'll fall.

[ufcrusher]

Well figuring that there is gravity on the moon, albeit 1/8th that of the earth (if memory serves), the pen would still respond with the normal response of falling towards the ground.

Now, the real question is if you were to take that pen and throw it hard enough, could you get it out to a point where gravity is too weak to exert force on the pen and thus allow it to float off into space?

[revil]

Originally posted by ufcrusher
Now, the real question is if you were to take that pen and throw it hard enough, could you get it out to a point where gravity is too weak to exert force on the pen and thus allow it to float off into space?

throw it greater than 2.37 km/sec and you will. throwing it directly at earth will help a little. by throwing it at the earth, you'll have to throw the object at 2.28 km/sec

source: http://home.tiac.net/~cri/1999/moon.html (i didn't feel like doing the math...)

[revil]

I got this email from my friend (fwd's of course).

HEAVY BOOTS
About 6-7 years ago, I was in a philosophy class at the University of
Wisconsin, Madison (good science/engineering school) and the teaching
assistant was explaining Descartes. He was trying to show how things
don't always happen the way we think they will and explained that,
while a pen always falls when you drop it on Earth, it would just
float away if you let go of it on the Moon.

My jaw dropped a little. I blurted "What?!" Looking around the room,
I saw that only my friend Mark and one other student looked confused
by the TA's statement. The other 17 people just looked at me like
"What's your problem?"

"But a pen would fall if you dropped it on the Moon, just more
slowly." I protested.

"No it wouldn't." the TA explained calmly, "because you're too far
away from the Earth's gravity."

Think. Think. Aha! "You saw the APOLLO astronauts walking around on
the Moon, didn't you?" I countered, "why didn't they float away?"
"Because they were wearing heavy boots." he responded, as if this made
perfect sense (remember, this is a Philosophy TA who's had plenty of
logic classes).

By then I realized that we were each living in totally different
worlds, and did not speak each others language, so I gave up. As we
left the room, my friend Mark was raging. "My God! How can all those
people be so stupid?"

I tried to be understanding. "Mark, they knew this stuff at one time,
but it's not part of their basic view of the world, so they've
forgotten it. Most people could probably make the same mistake."
To prove my point, we went back to our dorm room and began randomly
selecting names from the campus phone book. We called about 30 people
and asked each this question:

1. If you're standing on the Moon holding a pen, and you let go,
will it a) float away, b) float where it is, or c) fall to the
ground?

About 47 percent got this question correct. Of the ones who got
it wrong, we asked the obvious follow-up question:

2. You've seen films of the APOLLO astronauts walking around on the
Moon, why didn't they fall off?

About 20 percent of the people changed their answer to the first
question when they heard this one! But the most amazing part was
that about half of them confidently answered, "Because they were
wearing heavy boots."

I've asked several people on my campus and i'm recieving about the same figures as they. It's sad.

[Leebo]

Notice... Philosophy NOT Physics... wrong Ph... subject...

Saying the earth's gravity would pull a pen is like saying the sun's gravity should pull us off the earth..

[Merlin]

Originally posted by revil
the University of Wisconsin, Madison

Is this an accredited institution? And if so how do we get it revoked?

[sho.gun]

Originally posted by DarkFury
Yeah... I guess people don't realize that "large spatial objects" exert their own gravity.... Kinda like "YO MOMMA".

[gear02]

wow...that is one of the most amazing things I've ever heard.

I guess this also applies to computers. For us (well most of us here), computers are simple and second nature. But for a lot of other people (like my parents), computers are a total mystery.

[eSDee]

Originally posted by DarkFury
Yeah... I guess people don't realize that "large spatial objects" exert their own gravity.... Kinda like "YO MOMMA".

Aw man, DarkFury how long have you been waiting to use that? Nice one

[Merlin]

1. If you're standing on the Moon holding a pen, and you let go,will it a) float away, b) float where it is, or c) fall to the
ground?

About 47 percent got this question correct.

These must be the same "students" who can't find Jamaica on the map.

[Merlin]

Originally posted by DarkFury


Personally, I've never even heard of "Jamaca".

Where dat be Mon...???

Oops, thanks for catching the typo there Mavis.

[Grimm]

I find it depressing how stupid "smart" people can be. Basic physics is taught in gradeschool. And taught again in middleschool and highschool. The total lack of basic reasoning ability should exclude these people from a higher education. These are the people that will become the insufferable beurucrats that will make everyones lives miserable.

Is there a way you can let your professor know that he has a total idiot for a TA?

[WhiskeyPapa]

I remember there were always kids in my class at school who would say "Why do I need to learn this? I'll never need to know that!"

It didn't matter what class it was - math, science, history, etc. They were positive they would never need to know any of that "stuff".

Well, there are two news radio stations in my city. Each has a newscaster that ALWAYS butchers the news. They can't pronounce the names of countries, world leaders, local politicians, etc. Heck, one of them recently announced that Jimmy Carter won the "noble" prize, and once pronounced Gestapo as "Jestapo". I honestly don't understand how they keep their jobs.

I'm am positive that these newscasters were once students that bellyached "I'll never need to know that...!"

[zenbooty]

Where giant steps are what you take.