Soldato
- Joined
- 8 Mar 2007
- Posts
- 3,586
- Location
- Swindon, Wiltshire
36:) said:If a bee is flying in a plane, does it add to the mass / weight of the plane?
It would add to the mass of the plane as that is physically the amount of matter contained in that space.
However, as it is not exerting any pressure on the plane (as it is in the air and not touching anything) then no it does not add to the weight. It would however change the air pressure very slightly as the air around it is displaced and as it is much denser than air. SO if we see that the bee, rather than being a solid body, is a very very dense area of air, then it would increase the air pressure slightly in which case yes it would have an effect on both mass and weight as the aircraft is carrying air at a much higher pressure to the air outside (at high altitude anyway).
I like having an aircraft engineer for a dad
