The Newtonian Ant-Man problem!

Suppose somebody achieves the ability to become incredibly dense, or at least more than usual, by using the great space between the atoms of his body. Now this person, (regardless of whether it's possible or not let's assume it is just for the sake of the problem) is hitted by a train both in his dense and normal variations, in the dense one he has the volume of an ant and in the other one of a middle-age man. When does he gain a greater acceleration DUE TO THE TRAIN, who applies the same force in both cases? Assume they're rigid bodies meaning there's no force lost to the body being deformed, and ignore air resistance as you focus only on the force the train applies.

Neither, he has the same acceleration in both In the one he's smaller he'll have a greater acceleration In the one he's bigger he'll have a greater acceleration

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5 solutions

Max Yuen
May 16, 2019

The problem states the forces are the same in both cases, and the masses are the same, so by Newton’s 2nd Law we have F=ma which implies the same acceleration for both cases.

This is almost right if we consider only a rigid body, where forces are instantly communicated across the length of the object.

If we model the Antman and normal man as uniform blobs with different densities and different bulk moduli we will find that the speed of mechanical waves will be very different v = B S ρ v=\sqrt{\frac{B_S}{\rho}} . Thus, it isn’t hard to imagine that the force of impact will propagate almost instantaneously in the ant case, but in the normal size case would mean some parts of the body will feel the impact before the rest, likely leading to fractures etc.

Just a thought.

Yeah, assumptions should be stated ( like ridged body). I got this incorrect thinking about elasticity ( I was triggered to account for this by the talk of decreasing space between atoms). In hindsight, perhaps, the fact that the Force is the “same” in either case should hint that it is to be ignored, but I missed that. In reality the impulse felt on the body’s would be different.

Also there are a few language errors in the question that don’t help the situation.

Eric Roberts - 2 years ago

It should be made clear that we should treat the ant and man as rigid bodies and ignore air resistance.

Ryan Chapman - 2 years ago
Emilio Vigliecca
May 15, 2019

Well, as the train will always apply the same force, the Ant-Man will always have the same force on him. As stated by the 2nd Law of Newton F=ma, and as claimed the only thing that changes is it's volume, his mass remains the same so if his mass is 60kg then F=60kg*a(a from acceleration) which means that the acceleration will always be the same because if it changed the force would be different. Now what is different, though, is pressure which equals force divided by area in which the force is applied, that's why a bullet goes through you but a train with an equal acceleration to the bullet's doesn't.

What about the resistance of the air? Shouldnt it be bigger, the bigger the body? And doesnt it affect the accelaration? If so the answer should be "in the version he is smaller" right? (i'm sorry about my lack of vocabulary)

Eduardo Costa - 2 years ago

Eduardo, in the problem it's claimed that I'm which version does he gain a greater acceleration DUE TO THE TRAIN, though if you consider air drag then you'll be right but it's asking you to ignore any force that isn't the train's. And because of his effective area being smaller the air resistance in the small version should be smaller, and the resulting acceleration would depend on the sum of both forces, but you're asked to consider only the acceleration that is originated in the train's force.

Emilio Vigliecca - 2 years ago

Without air resistance both is the same

mohamed adel - 1 year, 9 months ago
Rohan Joshi
Nov 12, 2020

Only his density changes, not his mass. This is because he occupies a smaller volume. Since F=ma and F and m are the same, a is the same. Hence acceleration is the same.

Ignoring all forms of resistance, there will be no change to the inertial properties of the people.

Since both variations have the same mass, they will have the same acceleration due to Newton's 2nd law (F = ma --> The second law states that the acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables - the net force acting upon the object and the mass of the object). There are no net forces in this problem.

Barry Leung
Jan 2, 2020

Both bodies have the same mass. The same force applies to both of them. In the ideal case where F = m a F=ma , the acceleration is the same.

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