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A helium balloon is tied to the seat of a car. The doors and windows of the car is closed. If the car now starts moving, in which direction will the balloon move- front or back?

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They're talking about the same concept here... – Ϛѓăʑɏ βµԂԃϔ Oct 21 '12 at 6:35
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right. perhaps illusion has illusively copied the question – pagal Oct 21 '12 at 6:50
@DavidZaslavsky: Hello David. A small doubt... Why was this question closed? My thought is "It's a choice-selection" question. Is that so? – Ϛѓăʑɏ βµԂԃϔ Oct 21 '12 at 15:02
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@CrazyBuddy ah, sorry, I was in the middle of explaining and I got distracted. It appears to be a homework-like question with no work shown, which goes against our homework policy. Though it's close to being okay; illusion, if you would edit it to say what you've thought about and flag it for moderator attention, it'll probably be fine for reopening. – David Zaslavsky♦ Oct 21 '12 at 15:06
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Yeah, the link wasn't for you, it was for the OP (I try to always link to the HW policy when closing a question for that reason) – David Zaslavsky♦ Oct 21 '12 at 15:20
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closed as too localized by David Zaslavsky♦ Oct 21 '12 at 14:58

This question is unlikely to help any future visitors; it is only relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet. For help making this question more broadly applicable, see the FAQ.

1 Answer

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This is a very good question. I intend to do the experiment later.

I think the balloon will move forwards. The heavier molecules of air will tend to remain backwards due to inertia of rest. So it will occupy the place of the lighter helium balloon, making the helium balloon go forwards.

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Just a note that posting complete answers to homework-like questions is a violation of our policy. Ordinarily I would temporarily delete this, but since it's already been seen and accepted there isn't much point, so I'll leave it. – David Zaslavsky♦ Oct 21 '12 at 15:08

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