Educate Me Please

DampCat

DampCat

DampCat

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Joined
26 Feb 2007
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Leafy Cheshire
So

I have a lot of silly questions, and i never know who to ask. Most of them aren't threadworthy, so i continue life in ignorance too afraid to ask any real people.

I figured then, i would collate all my silly questions and ask them all at once. And i guess you guys can too, just ask away here.

My questions are thus:

1. Who was the canadian chick with the beautiful eyes that did that song with an awful lot of piano in it, that then went on to do a duet/collaboration with Counting Crows on something or another?

2. Similar to the Plane on a treadmill (please dont start discussing that...), if you put a massive fan in front of a small plane (Cessna), and made 120+mph winds, would the plane take off? If it used whatever necessary flaps that were required to generate lift, of course.

i think it would, but it would just fly (not literally) backwards and crash and burn... so it'd need some thrust once airbourne... but that's irrelevent, would it actually lift from the ground?

3. Gremlin Law... at what point is it deemed "before midnight" rather than "after midnight"? Is it lunchtime? Are grmlins affected by daylight savings?

4. Sound in space. There's no sound in space because there's nothing to resonate/transfer it (forgive my terminology, you know what i mean..)... but does this mean that sound stops dead when it hits a vacuum? Or if that vacuum was contained between two walls (like a termos flask, but better), would sound on one side be heard on the other? Or would it be killed in the vacuum?

Um... that's it for now. I dont mind if you guys think im stupid to be honest. I never pretended to be otherwise ;) I'll probably have more at some point.
 
Number 2 is a yes. Planes can fly essentially backward if there is enough oncoming wind.

4 is also a yes. Sound cannot travel though a vacuum.
 
1) no idea
2) it would get lift and then crash I imagine due to balance.
3) they don't exist
4) sound can not pass through a vacuum. However if you have some sort of flask with a vacuum inside. You would hear a sound on the other side. As the sound will transmit through the flask it's self.
 
2. I think this would be like creating a wind tunnel, so take off is possible but there'd be no ground speed depending on the wind. Depends how you work it, as just putting massive winds in front of it straight away would probably blow it over or something!

4. Yes, the sound must stop when it hits a vacuum, but to have a vacuum on earth or near a significant amount of particles it must be contained within walls, and these can transfer sounds as they are solid objects.
 
For sound to travel, it needs particles to propagate the wave. So it can go through air, water, and solid matter. Solid matter doesn't transmit sound as well as water or air because the particles are held together more strongly.

Space is a vacuum, and so there are no particles to propagate the wave, so it is not transmitted.
 
alexhull24 said:
4. Yes, the sound must stop when it hits a vacuum, but to have a vacuum on earth or near a significant amount of particles it must be contained within walls, and these can transfer sounds as they are solid objects.
Click to expand...

i suppose you could make a hollow magnetic ball put your alarm clock/buzzer/sound source inside then float it over a super conductor in a a vacuum.:p
 
With reference to .2

In flight sim, I practise take off and landing (vertically relative to the ground) by custom setting an appropriate headwind. It's quite good fun.
 
It's not transmitted via sound (compressional) waves, but by EM waves, which penetrate a vacuum. We'd be pretty screwed if they didn't!
 
Radio waves are electromagnetic waves, they travel as packets of energy known as quanta at the speed of light and can induce movement in electrons in an antenna, which creates a waveform for sound.
 
alexhull24 said:
Radio waves are electromagnetic waves, they travel as packets of energy known as quanta at the speed of light and can induce movement in electrons in an antenna, which creates a waveform for sound.
Click to expand...

Wow... well that's interesting! I dont remember ever covering that in physics to be honest.
 
Cheers everyone else also. Vanessa Carlton is it, been tryign to work that one out for ages.

I figured as much on the plane thing, but wanted to be sure. I can further it though:

If you had a 200mph head wind, and the plane was producing 180mph of thrust whilst airborne (enought o keep it stable), would it go backwards, relative to groundspeed?
 
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