Help me understand a misconception....

[asterroc]

An interesting situation came up in my Physics class today, where two of my students surprised me with a question they asked. To try and understand their thinking so I can teach the content better, I'd like to ask that everyone take a look at the below situation and tell me what you think will happen. I don't care if you know any physics or if you're a professional ear-wax taster, I want to know what you think and why.

In the picture below, Box 1 (m₁) is hanging from a string that passes over a pulley. There's no friction in the pulley, and the pulley has no mass, so it can spin freely. The string is then connected to Box 2 (m₂) sitting on a table. For simplicity, let's assume there's no friction on the table - there's some lubrication between the box and the table.



[Poll #1162218]

X-posted a couple places.

Comments

[sammka.livejournal.com]

she?

[ka3ytl.livejournal.com]

maybe. I don't really know and he is historically gender neutral :)

Would you prefer ze or zie?

[sammka.livejournal.com]

Were you referring to zandperl? She is a she.

Then again, I favor the singular "they" for real people whose genders you don't know, and using "he" and "she" alternately for hypothetical individuals.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

In RL I am a "she"; online I am glad that you have been more interested in what I have to say than what my gender is. :)

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I'd x-posted the same poll to physics, but since I posted it here first, the "Discuss Results" link from the poll page came to this post rather than to that one. Hence, there's a number of people here who don't follow my blog and don't particularly know my gender.

[sammka.livejournal.com]

ahhh ok!