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Now for the more interesting question that runs amuck with this one:

If a helicopter was hovering in an elevator, would the helicopter go up and down simultaneously with elevator movement?.... or would the ceiling or floor of the moving elevator hit the hovering helicopter?

Frank


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I find that one much easier to answer and far less complicated.


Oh no.... think of the possibilities for argument:

1) We could build proximity sensors into the helicopter that sensed the approach of the floor or ceiling and change the helicopter's altitude (relative to the ground) to a constant relationship within the upper and lower hard decks of the elevator. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

2) We could posit that because the helicopter was operating in an enclosed space, the rotors would blow all of the air toward the floor and the air would bounce off the floor, slip by the rotor tips and go to the ceiling of the elevator, leaving the bottom of the helicopter in a vacuum and the rotors no longer able to support the helicopter... so it would obviously fall to the elevator floor in a vacuum... and of course, the extra air above the rotors would be compressed and exert downward pressure on the helicopter, which would accelerate the drop. But if we could make the elevator rise fast enough before the fall of the helicopter reached terminal velocity of 32' per second squared, the pressurized air would fall back to the floor and the helicopter would be able to gain enough lift to stay off the floor. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Or maybe we'd just need some air pumps and valves to move the air around the elevator so the helicopter wouldn't have to worry about all that aerodynamic stuff. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

3) We could accelerate the elevator faster than the air could move and the position of the helicopter would not be able to overcome the friction of the air...... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Frank
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