Its just one coin in any world

A passenger in a closed train car moving at constant velocity tosses a coin directly upward. Where will the coin fall?

(Ignore effects of air resistance.)

Ahead of his hand Behind his hand On his hand

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15 solutions

Curtis Clement
Jan 9, 2015

Well we are assuming that there is little air resistance and the coin is tossed vertically. You and the train are going at a constant, so the coin will as it is flipped. \therefore the coin will land in your palm. This is sometimes called the "cannonball principle".

Correct..... rest answer are just like useless theorems, train is moving constant or it is stopped. so the same action will be seen , in both case. vertical up tossing, and same direction it comes down, while moving, constantly..or in stoppage . forces are neutralized. so no change unless drastic speed change, sudden break, air blowing starts. so your answer is 100% correct.

Tms Saeed - 5 years, 5 months ago
Manish Mayank
Jun 29, 2014

Due to inertia it will cover the same distance as the train, if we neglect air resistance.

u told that there is lack of air so how can coin falls in his hand

Gautham Gautham - 6 years, 11 months ago

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It says lack of air not gravity

Jigar Patel - 6 years, 11 months ago

Why cant fall!!! gravity is present there.

Manish Mayank - 6 years, 11 months ago

Due to Inertia.... and since there is no air.. thus no air resistance and hence it falls in his own hand

Bishal Naskar - 6 years, 11 months ago

so there's not air so the coin can't fly any where, right ?xD

Khang Trần Nam - 6 years, 11 months ago

Actually, your answer is wrong.

The answer is D: Not certain. Why? Quantum mechanics: there is a probability that the coin may do one of the following: slip through the man's hand; pop out of existence; teleport through spacetime into another location;... or, similar events may apply to the man, the train, or the entire planet.

However, I understand that your question was to be interpeted from a classical Newtonian-mechanics standpoint. Next time you should specify in your question to which fields of physics you want the solver to confine his answers to, or just specify exceptions.

Take care,

John M. - 6 years, 11 months ago

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Far too pedantic, it's obvious what he means, no need at all to bring up the fact that you know about (probably a very small area) of quantum mechanics

Will Slater - 6 years, 11 months ago

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He's probably kidding...come on guys

Zarin Tasnim - 5 years, 5 months ago

Huh, funny. Wasnt excpecting to see smart-asses on Brilliant. You obviously just want to show that you "know" about quantum physics... Or you were just making a joke and im in the wrong

Little Narwhal - 2 years, 5 months ago

Not even pedantic, you are simply incorrect. Quantum effects are not observable in any capacity in this system. This is equivalent to stating that it is not certain that a hot cup of coffee will cool down in cold weather because there is a minute probability that it heats up. Rule #1 of pedanticism is at least be goddamn right.

Mohamed Elsayed - 5 years, 5 months ago

Yes I agree by your opinion !!

Arif Suprayogi - 6 years, 11 months ago

The coin is not on the train, it is in the air.

Patricia Legler - 4 years, 2 months ago
Dienever Gupta
Jul 4, 2014

Another question earth is moving with uniform velocity and you jump on earth where will you land America, Europe, Indian Ocean

The lack of air, means the man is dead, and couldn't flip the coin, or have it land on his hand. But if I allow for a man that can survive a vacuum, that still doesn't tell me if he was tossing it straight up, out in front of him, back behind him, or down at his feet. So there is not enough information to form a correct answer. Hence, an answer of "not certain" would be the correct answer.

William Anderson - 6 years, 6 months ago

Lack of air means what ??

Pruthvi Raj J S - 6 years, 10 months ago

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it means the air resistance is lower,hence the gravitational acceleration is faster.

AlliMi Ahmad - 6 years, 10 months ago

Why Will it Fall in his hand?...Can You Explain please!

Deepjyoti Nath - 6 years, 8 months ago

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Since there is no resistance, there is no reason, according to Newton's Third Law of Motion, for the coin to travel in any horizontal direction. PS: I assume that the coin is thrown directly upwards, exactly perpendicular to his hand.

Chuka Nwobodo - 6 years, 3 months ago

The only thing that gave me pause was the use of the phrase "directly up" since no mention was made of what frame of reference "up" was relative to. This confusion could be avoided by saying that the force/impulse imparted on the coin was directly up.

Andy Harris - 4 years, 5 months ago

i still dont get it. The "lack of air" data seems to be irrelevant

Ivet Kaih - 6 years, 10 months ago

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lack of air means "vacuum" :)

Munmun Dixit - 6 years, 6 months ago

Don't you mean the Earth is spinning? That is a very good point though. Generally in mechanics it is always worth thinking of an extreme example in order to answer the question

Curtis Clement - 6 years, 5 months ago

Actually, there is a slight effect, caused by the rotation of the Earth. It's called the Coriolis effect. The effect is miniscule in this case, but it's there. If we're talking about a flat Earth, then the answer is clearly "in the man's hand." But in fact the Earth is rotating. In its flight, the coin is actually in a very eccentric orbit. Because its apogee is a little higher than the radius of the man's hand, its period will be a little slower, and the coin will land a little to the West of the man's hand.

Jack

Jack Crenshaw - 2 years, 7 months ago
Karan Joisher
Jul 6, 2014

The coin and the man both would have same horizontal velocity and the frame of reference is not accelarated(train is moving with uniform velocity)

Jaivir Singh
Aug 1, 2014

Due to inertia it will cover the same distance as the train, if we neglect air resistance.

Don Weingarten
Feb 1, 2019

The inertia of the coin will keep it moving at the same speed as the train and the passenger, therefore it will fall as it would in a motionless train.

Achille 'Gilles'
Dec 28, 2015

Unless the train is in a curve, the trajectory of the coin, from the point of view of the person throwing it is going to be up and down as both, person and coin, are in the same system of reference.

Giovani Rech
Jul 3, 2014

Since the train is in uniform motion it is a inertial reference frame, thus all the physics laws are behave exactly like any other inertial frame of reference (like the train station).

Emerson Shelby
May 9, 2018

Since the coin is moving with the train, the velocity of both is the same, therefore when tossed, the coin should have no additional starting velocty on the horizontal axis (assuming the passenger did not throw the coin horizontally, and hat air resistance is negligible). That being stated, the coin should land back into the person's palm. However, from the passenger's reference frame, the coin travels up and back down into the person's palm.

You, the train, and the coin all have the same horizontal velocity.

Vijay Simha
Sep 30, 2017

The frame of reference is the same. Whether you are enclosed in a compartment moving at a constant velocity or whether you are stationary on the ground.

Maricar Quinlog
Jun 17, 2017

bold text

Syed Hissaan
Jan 30, 2017

it will land in his hands because if the car train is moving with a velocity v v then the will also be moving with the same speed after being tossed .

Hari Om Sharma
Jun 29, 2016

the train and we are going with same velocity and other work done by inertia

Prakhar Mishra
Jun 15, 2016

in simple words I would like to say that the phone and the person move with the car with the same speed they gain some momentum due to which even as they leave contact from the car instantly there there will be no change in this speed so when the person will throw the coin upwards person and the coin will move with the same speed horizontally instantly and so the coin will fall on the palm of the person.

The question states the train is moving forward. Therefore the question is asked in the context of an external observer of this train standing on the stationary earth. For the coin to land back in his hand the observer would see the coin launched in an up and forward direction. Therefore if the coin was launched directly up, it would land behind the thrower.

Phil Dobber - 3 years, 11 months ago

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