Imagine you are riding on a train that is moving along at a constant speed in the forward direction. You are facing forward and holding a ball out beside you.
1. If you drop the ball, which way does it fall from your perspective?
2. From the perspective of someone standing still next to the track, with the train moving from left to right in front of them, which way does the ball fall?
3. If the train's engineer applies the breaks while the ball is falling, where will the ball hit the train car's floor? Why? Assume that the static friction between you feet and the train car's floor is strong enough to keep you from sliding.
4. Having grown tired of bouncing the ball you decide to take a nap. You sit down next to a window and fall asleep. When you wake up you look out the window to see another train passing. It appears to be moving at constant velocity toward the front of your train. You don't feel yourself accelerating so your train must also be moving at constant velocity. Without looking out any other windows, so that all you see is the passing train, can you tell the velocity of your train relative to the ground?
In a common circus stunt a man is shot out of a canon. In this stunt the canon is placed at an angle so that the man flies through the air in front of the audience in a long arc. Neglect air resistance for this problem.
5. What is the direction of the fictitious force on the stunt man as he flies through the air?
6. What is his apparent weight?
7. He lands on a thick foam pad. Why does this protect him from injury?
8. If he doesn't bounce off of the pad where has the kinetic energy he had just before landing gone?