• cumnan@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If the vehicle maintained a constant velocity and there was no air resistance, the diver would enter the pool.

    In the real world, air resistance would cause the diver’s velocity to decrease relative to the vehicle and thus the second panel is a probable outcome.

    • Hugin@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I don’t think you can assume constant velocity. 16 forward movement lines on the top vs 13 on the bottom so it’s moving at 81.25% speed in the bottom compared to the top.

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      It would depend on the speed, and any speed a person could actually stand an jump from is likely slow enough they still land in the pool.

    • Limonene@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The diver would feel the same wind while in the air as while standing on that elevated diving board. He would recognize the strong 70Mph wind, and jump forward to counteract it.

      • snooggums@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        He wouldn’t be casually standing on the board at 70 mph either, so any wind strong enough to push him off the back would make it really hard to stand and dive in the first place.

      • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        He is exerting force on the diving board to stay in position. Gripping with his feet, and leaning.

        Sure when you jump you.would.natutslly try to compensate, but I don’t think you’d land where you hope, it would be very hard to gauge the needed force, or even produce it.

    • ArgentRaven@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You wouldn’t drive an RV with a pool on the top very fast at all. It’d be a dangerous tipping hazard on any turn, and sudden acceleration or deceleration would cause the water to spill out.

      Assuming they’re not going 80, and more likely not even 55, the diver would have more than enough force to jump forward into the water.

    • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I doubt they are fast enough to blow him that far off. My bet would be that he falls flat on the middle of that board.

    • SeattleRain@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Yeah, air resistance and friction from the road are the primary reason why the car’s engine has to keep running.

  • FMT99@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I can’t answer this without at least one spherical cow in the frame of reference.

  • noughtnaut@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is related to the “airplane on a treadmill” myth (go watch).

    Preservation of momentum

    I wanna say it’s incorrect, but really I’ll say it’s exaggerated. The man on the diving board is going to continue moving forwards just like the rest of the gear, he’s not going to suddenly stop on relation to the road surface. However, he is going to be affected by wind resistance (which scales exponentially quadratically with speed) so he will need to make a good forward leap in order to not fall behind because of that. If he doesn’t, he would be effective jumping backwards - but not as far as depicted (unless the car is travelling really, really fast).

    If the pool (and indeed, the man) were encased within an envelope to protect from that wind resistance, he would be entirely unaffected. So there.

    • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Or going fast enough that air friction would decelerate the guy this much.

      • Kogasa@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        He would need to be gripping extremely hard with his feet and somehow keeping his body rigid in the first panel

        • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          I’m imagining him having taken a bit of a run-up and this is the moment when he’s momentarily at the same speed as the car. Obviously, it is still somewhat of a stretch…

  • gasgiant@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    The real answer is it depends how the diver is exerting force as he stands there and what force he has to overcome to jump forwards.

    If he’s using all his driving force through his legs just to stand there then when he jumps up he will go backwards.

    If he was casually standing there easily overcoming the push of the air already then he can jump into the pool just as normal.

    It’s the same as standing next to a swimming pool with different wind speeds. Small breeze = jump in ok. Hurricane = blown backwards.

    That’s assuming he wasn’t trying to jump off the back of the vehicle…

    • rosymind
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      1 year ago

      Also assuming the van doesn’t suddenly, greatly, accelerate

  • april@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It works if the wind is really strong, but everyone knows physicists can only handle frictionless vacuums

  • DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    It’s impossible to say how far back the diver would end up relative to the vehicle but from the moment he lost contact with the diving board he’d be subject to deceleration from wind resistance while the vehicle would still be going at whatever speed it already was so seems decently accurate. (Just wait for the Lemmy physics professors to tell me I’m wrong)

    • DacoTaco@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Youre not and mythbusters kinda proved this. They shot a ball at 50km/h in one direction while driving in the other, also at 50km/h. The ball stayed in place because they were no longer in contact and their frame of reference is no longer the same and they deal with their own resistances and speed. This means that yes, the diver would lag behind. Maybe not as far as in the comic, depending on car speed, but he would be behind the spot he left on

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    car would have to be accelerating or… moving fast enough that wind resistance was significant (the air is probably not moving with the car)

  • Open World@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If the vehicle is moving at a constant speed, then the guy should be moving at the same speed in the direction of the vehicle during the jump since they’re in the same reference frame, so there’s no reason why he would suddenly lag behind and jump onto the ground.

    Edit: Damn physics classes conditioned me into always assuming air resistance is 0!

    • glimse@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The vehicle overcomes air resistance with an engine and maintains its speed. The jumper has no engine and will be affected by air resistance

      Like the other commenter said, the comic is exaggerated but true

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    You guys are all confused. The real question is will the diver be injured more by falling on the pavement than diving into such a shallow pool?

    If the pool is deep enough to accommodate the diver, then there is no way that car could tow the RV nor any way for those tires to support it, thus the velocity is zero.