Can a fly stop a train?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

This one's great for when you've had a few brewskis,or whatever else adjusts your thinking process.Can a fly stop a train?The immediate answer from most would be no.But let us examine the evidence.Fly is buzzing along in one direction,train coming in the other direction,fly hits train.The fly is now splatted on the front of the train,and moving in the same direction as the train.For the fly to have changed directon,it must have stopped,if only for the tiniest nanosecond.But if the fly had to stop,then the train also must have stopped,again if only for a micro-moment,or the train's molecules would have effectively overtaken the fly's molecules and the two be absorbed into each other.

This is a brilliant excuse for bieng late,blaming the large amount of flys that kept stopping the train you were on.When challenged on the validity of your excuse,just explain the above theory to your interrogator and blag your way out of any stress.Sorted.

(this comes with no personal garrantee from me as I am a compulsive liar and profoundly unstable.)

― Eugene Speed (Eugene Speed), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 21:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Your logic about the train stopping while hitting the fly is flawed to say the least.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 21:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's just the difference between "stop" (i.e., cease the motion of) and "momentarily exert resistance against."

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 21:34 (twenty-three years ago)

But the ability to bamboozle the logically-challenged with what appears to be a simple-to-answer question,that is followed by an answer so ridiculous but so well presented and explained,is surely worth the effort convincing yourself that you have a valid point .Especially useful at social gatherings involving drink/drugs,etc.You would be surprised at the conversations that this topic has led to.

People still think I'm talking shite,though.

― Eugene Speed (Eugene Speed), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 22:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Well maybe the two ARE absorbed into each other! Aaaah ... did you think about that? Can I have a drag of your cigarette? Yeah, I only smoke when I'm drinking ... oh, it's your last one? Do you want to share?

― maryann (maryann), Wednesday, 1 January 2003 00:32 (twenty-three years ago)

"well presented"

― Graham (graham), Wednesday, 1 January 2003 00:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Are we assuming that the fly has been observed after impact, or is it still an eigen-fly?

― Dave Fischer, Wednesday, 1 January 2003 00:44 (twenty-three years ago)

flies CAN actually STOP Connex trains

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 1 January 2003 21:39 (twenty-three years ago)

do Connex trains actually move though?

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 1 January 2003 21:43 (twenty-three years ago)

No, not often.

― Graham (graham), Wednesday, 1 January 2003 22:01 (twenty-three years ago)

an infestation of flies within a train could mean that the train company has to stop the train due to health and safety regulations.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 1 January 2003 22:22 (twenty-three years ago)

you know and the driver has to come along and get everyone out of the train and then spray every carriage with insecticide, it would take ages!!!

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 1 January 2003 22:25 (twenty-three years ago)

or, if the fly flies through the train driver's open window in his cab and into his eye, causing them to mishandle the train controls and get wet like an angel derailed :O

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 2 January 2003 00:54 (twenty-three years ago)

b-b-but a train does not move smoothly, I'm sure that on the scale of a nanosecond it must exemplify a fluctuatory stop/start motion

― Curtis Stephens, Thursday, 2 January 2003 03:09 (twenty-three years ago)

See Zeno's Paradox of Achilles and the Tortise. Very similar idea.

― Aimless, Thursday, 2 January 2003 04:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Also: All matter is 99.99999999999999..% empty space, but two solid objects during collision still won't envelop each other, because their molecules all have the same molecular charge and would repel each other. The fly's molecules, even in colliding with the train, would not actually touch the train's molecules; they would still be spaced a few nanometers apart. Or something like that.

― Curtis Stephens, Friday, 3 January 2003 01:06 (twenty-three years ago)

This is all very interesting. To Curtis: So, no two objects ever really touches each other? They're always a few nanometers across? Crazy.

The main flaw in the original post is that when 2 masses hit each other, both do not need to stop; the faster will just push through it-- without overtaking it, for reasons Curtis explained.

I still like it though.

― David Allen, Friday, 3 January 2003 01:19 (twenty-three years ago)

If the fly had momentum equalling or exceeding the train's, and they collided head on, then the train would stop, no?

Wouldn't it be easier for the fly to ask someone to pull the emergency cord?

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 3 January 2003 11:09 (twenty-three years ago)

brundletrain

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 3 January 2003 11:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Tim, yes, but only if the fly was hard enough. It would also be a rather heavy fly if it was travelling that fast.

― RickyT (RickyT), Friday, 3 January 2003 11:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Ah well a really heavy fly could just land on the emergency cord and solve the problem that way.

― Tim (Tim), Friday, 3 January 2003 13:15 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm imagining a gigantic fly slamming into a train and giving myself MAJOR heebie-jeebies. Have you ever SEEN a fly's face? Now imagine that HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Saturday, 4 January 2003 00:33 (twenty-three years ago)

This is turning into the cartoon Gary Larson never drew.

― Ally C (Ally C), Saturday, 4 January 2003 00:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Q: how do you know if a fly is hard enough?

A: he's wearing a raiders hat.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Saturday, 4 January 2003 01:07 (twenty-three years ago)

If the train's at the station and the fly squishes into the front of it.....would it push the train back ?

baggy.

― kier bagwell (baggy), Saturday, 4 January 2003 12:57 (twenty-three years ago)

a very small part of the train would indeed stop momentarily, in the sense that, in order to produce the force that changews the fly's momentum, the molecoles in a tiny patch on the surface of the front of the train exactly where it was collided with would have to deform (bow inwards)

(reason = identical to the fact that you can never pull a "horizontal" rope so tight that it doesn't form a slight downward curve)

the main error in the question is the assumption that a train is a complete object which never changes shape: actually the air it's pushing against causes it to change shape (which deformation produces the force it needs to push the air aside)

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 4 January 2003 13:08 (twenty-three years ago)

so the fly would get sucked into the air flow and never actually touch the train.

― kier bagwell (baggy), Saturday, 4 January 2003 14:05 (twenty-three years ago)

If I were marking any of your answers I would be using my big red angry pen of death. I wouldnt even have to by stickers cause all so wrong its maddening.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Sunday, 5 January 2003 00:51 (twenty-three years ago)

"big red angry pen of death" has got to be a great euphemism for SOMETHING...

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 5 January 2003 01:44 (twenty-three years ago)

nothing can stop anything ever, since everything's moving at 67,062 miles per hour all the time anyway, nyah nyah

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Sunday, 5 January 2003 02:13 (twenty-three years ago)

yay~!

― Curtis Stephens, Sunday, 5 January 2003 03:20 (twenty-three years ago)

how is my answer wrong noodles? reserve yr big angry pen of death for my typos!!

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 5 January 2003 13:08 (twenty-three years ago)

what if it was a gigantic fly, and it was battling Godzilla?

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 5 January 2003 15:10 (twenty-three years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.