All Questions
Tagged with scaling newtonian-mechanics
8 questions
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Could a human-sized flea really jump over the Eiffel Tower?
I am puzzled why so many people think such a large flea could jump as high as the Eiffel Tower. We know that a 3mm long flea can jump 150mm, which is 50 times its own length. So I suppose it's ...
- 151
29
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6
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Why do objects with big size break easily?
Why do objects with big size break easily? For example: if I drop a chalk of length $L$ from height $h$ then there is a greater probability that it might break, when compared it to a chalk of length $\...
- 1,691
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Is it possible to prove that an elephant and a human could jump to the same height? [duplicate]
Is there a physics argument, based on scaling, that leads to the conclusion that an elephant and a human could jump about same height?
Could this be extended to any two creatures with different ...
- 113
2
votes
2
answers
665
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Does the Newton's law break scale invariance?
Under a scale transformation $$t\rightarrow \bar{t}=\mu t\hspace{0.3cm}\text{and}\hspace{0.3cm}\textbf{r}\to\bar{\textbf{r}}=\lambda\textbf{r},\tag{1}$$ Newton's law take the form $$m\frac{d^2\textbf{...
- 27.2k
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Scaling: Gravity and Friction
I understand how doubling the length of a shape quadrupes it's area and the analog in 3 dimensions. My question however relates to other physical quantities, for example gravitational field strength.
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- 920
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How does the height of a jump change if the body is scaled down?
This is a physics question that appeared in the movie 'The Internship.'
If you are reduced to the size of a coin and put into a blender what would you do?
Apparently the answer was that with a ...
- 4,797
21
votes
6
answers
26k
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Google interview riddle and scaling arguments
I am puzzled by a riddle to which I have been told the answer and I have loads of difficulties to believe in the result.
The riddle goes as follows:
"imagine you are shrunk to the size of a coin (...
- 7,400
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Why do we need more power to do a job fast? [closed]
Let's assume we have two identical electric trains. One has a big electric motor (high power) and the other has small motor (low power). Let us assume the electric motors are of the same brand and ...
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