If in space/micro-gravity, could you "lift" yourself in a bucket by the handle?

[Jeff7]

1) Build a motor with small robotic arms mounted on the rotors.
2) Equip motor with a UV laser and stability thrusters.
3) Launch motor into orbit.
4) Upon arrival in orbit, the small robotic arms will begin pulling on the rotors in a direction tangential to the direction of travel.
5) Motor begins spinning due to the pull.
6) Motor powers the laser, which sends free energy to Earth.
7) Earth turns into a giant tuna fish when the laws of physics get tired of being ignored, and they pack up and leave.

 

[Red Squirrel]

1) Build a motor with small robotic arms mounted on the rotors.
2) Equip motor with a UV laser and stability thrusters.
3) Launch motor into orbit.
4) Upon arrival in orbit, the small robotic arms will begin pulling on the rotors in a direction tangential to the direction of travel.
5) Motor begins spinning due to the pull.
6) Motor powers the laser, which sends free energy to Earth.
7) Earth turns into a giant tuna fish when the laws of physics get tired of being ignored, and they pack up and leave.

That has potential. ...No pun intended. :biggrin:

 

[destrekor]

This question makes my head hurt.

That is all.

 

[eits]

I don't understand. You are in a bucket? What?

lol that's what i'm sayin'... wtf is the question, op?

 

[her209]

lol that's what i'm sayin'... wtf is the question, op?

Instead of a bucket, imagine the OP is in a rocketship that is vertical like its ready for take off. The OP being inside the rocketship, standing on the floor would push up on the nose part to make it take off.

 

[eits]

Instead of a bucket, imagine the OP is in a rocketship that is vertical like its ready for take off. The OP being inside the rocketship, standing on the floor would push up on the nose part to make it take off.

lol yeah right

 

[foghorn67]

This question makes my head hurt.

That is all.

Shortest destroker post, ever.

 

[JTsyo]

One thing I've always wondered about zero gravity, say you have something with moving parts. Let's keep things simple, and say a fan. What dictates which part actually moves. The fan itself, or the blades? Or do they move 50% one way and 50% the other way?

I'd be thinking mass has an effect, but at zero gravity, there's no such thing as mass. Or is there?

If that were true, there would be no solar system.

Too bad there isn't a quick way to draw a Free Body Diagram here. Might help the OP.

 

[torpid]

Assuming you weren't resisting with your quads, it would be no different than grabbing your foot and pulling and likely would cause you to rotate a bit (backwards?), but would not propel you.

 

[DrPizza]

Newton's Third law: The mutual forces of action and reaction between two bodies are equal, opposite and collinear.

When you are pulling on the bucket handle, you are also pushing down on the bucket to generate that force.

You've stated Newton's Third Law just fine. However, the second sentence is NOT Newton's third law. Newton's third law basically says that when you pull up on the bucket handle, the bucket handle is pushing you down - it has nothing to do with the bottom of the bucket. When a speeding locomotive collides with a mosquito, the mosquito exerts the exact same magnitude of force on the locomotive as the locomotive exerts on the mosquito. THAT'S Newton's 3rd law.

 

[DrPizza]

JTsyo has a good point - a free body diagram would help a lot. Also, understanding conservation of momentum (Newton used his 3rd law to derive the conservation of momentum, but conservation of momentum is probably more fundamental) would greatly simplify this problem - it's a very trivial conservation of momentum problem. If the net momentum of the system is zero before the attempted lift, then the net momentum after the attempted lift is also going to be zero. Unless there's something going in the opposite direction of the bucket (and person), then it's not going to move (or change its motion, if it's already in motion.)

But, the free body diagram: draw a person. What forces are acting on the person? The OP might think that the bottom of the bucket is exerting a force on the person; say a 50 Newton force. And, this value is quite reasonable. How does the bucket exert such a force? Simply, you lift the handle with a 50 Newton force. BUT, if you push the handle upward with a 50 Newton force, then the bucket handle pushes you down with a 50 Newton force. The net force *on you* is 50 newtons up + 50 newtons down = 0 newtons.

 

[sao123]

As you know this is impossible on earth (unless you're Chuck Norris, in which case it's part of his daily exercise routine), such that it's become a cliche. But could you in micro-gravity? Day if you were in a bucket sitting at rest on a surface, could you launch yourself "up" in the direction away from the surface?

so like if i put you in a sailboat and there is no wind... could you blow hard enough to move your own boat.