h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Would this have anything to do with the fact that according to the laws of gravitation a pencil and a vase will fall at the same rate of speed?

For example if you hold the pencil in your left hand below the vase and the vase in the other hand and release them simultaneously the pencil will always be between the vase and the ground.

and actually with the feather tied to the vase it's wind resistance is increased causing it to fall slower than the pencil.

Oh, and I still say the feather is tied to the neck, not the base of the vase.

the pencil is lying on the ground
horizontally

It is horizontal - but it ain't lying on the ground, no.

I checked: the feather is tried to the BASE of the vase.


>>actually with the feather tied to the vase it's wind resistance is increased causing it to fall slower than the pencil.<<

That's got to be the most sensible thing that's come from this discussion so far! DGI +1

ah

The strangled cry of the hopeless as the final frayed fibre of sanity goes 'ping'?

yesssssssssssssssss my precioussssssss

Okay good just checking.

okay okay okay okay i got it for sure now, boss

the vase also is horizontal while still in my hands
the pencil is in my mouth,
one end gripped by my teeth
and the other end inserted in the neck of the vase
thereby holding the vase up when i release my grip!!!
and of course the feather is there to create wind resistance for any slight dip of the vase

yes!!! yes!!! yes!!! yess!!! i got it huh!!!
beers for everyone

for some bizarre reason i feel moved to comment that everything is in a state of perpetual falling

Am I right in saying that the pencil falls remaining horizontal as it does so?
I just dropped a pencil from six feet up (actually I did so five times) and I notice the pencil bounces.(actually one time it flipped end for end).

have you experimented with any glass vases yet?

Actually back in the 70s I was watching how glass cola bottles always break on the second impact not the first.
This really has no bearing on the question here, but once I accidentally knocked an empty coke bottle off a table and my reflexes were fast enough in those days that I caught it when it bounced and returned it to the table. One stunned onlooker thought the bottle never touched the ground but I knew it had-once.

Reference 231 You seem to have forgotten about the string. Is that tied around your neck?

Oh, and Clive, would it help us to know how long the string was? Or is it just long enough to tie on the feather?

nonono shagbark i am SURE it has a bearing here

i think you are on to something

somehow there is a bounce...

okay... to clarify...
the bouncing coke bottle... its very relevant

and the string, dear shagbark, is tying the feather to the base of the vase

ha ha though... ha ha

Actually geggs mentioned the bounce way back in post#5 and clive answered in post#11
let's just assume for giggles that this vase is especially fragile and liable to shatter upon impact.

I don't care whether or not it bounces, I want to make sure it never reaches the floor.