Posted by John Collins (194.164.38.13) on December 13, 2002 at 11:49:30:
In Reply to: Re: To John Collins posted by grim on December 13, 2002 at 11:22:28:
Yes it is interesting to speculate on what would happen to a Bessler wheel in the gravityless conditions of space. Theoretically although there is no gravity it could still rotate but would need a starting push, then the mass might still exert a changing force and cause the wheel to spin.
John C.
: Mass is measured in slugs, and it is the weight of the object divided by the gravitational constant at the particular place where it is. On eart its the weight measured divided by 32.2, the constant of earth. If we send the weight to Jupiter, a scale there will read considerably more weight for the object. However its mass has not changed because now to obtain that figure, we must divide by the gravitational constant of JUPITER. The mass figure in slugs will be identical, because you have neither added atoms or subtracted them. So the "m" in your equation would come out the same no matter if on Earth or Jupiter.