Blowing your own sail

Liquidfox

Liquidfox

Liquidfox

Soldato
Joined
26 Sep 2007
Posts
4,141
Location
Newcastle
Following on from GD's favourite Plane on a conveyor belt:

Can a fan attached to a boat power a sail boat on a windless day?

Newton's First Law: Every body remains in a state of constant velocity unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force.
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The fan in this case is internal as it's attached to the boat.

Newton's Third Law: The mutual forces of action and reaction between two bodies are equal, opposite and collinear. This means that whenever a first body exerts a force F on a second body, the second body exerts a force −F on the first body. F and −F are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.
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The fan pushing on the sail creates the opposite force that the fan is creating by pulling in the other direction.

But, will it sail?
 
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