Could air resistance exist in zero gravity?
By ready2earn
@ready2earn (435)
Italy
December 19, 2006 12:04pm CST
Hello,
I have a hypothetical question. Would it be possible that there were air resistance in an environment with no gravity? Assuming of course that there were air in such an environment. More specifically I'm interested in knowing if vessels such as airplanes with propellers could "fly" in that kind of an environment.
1 response
@cheongyc (5072)
• Malaysia
21 Dec 06
If there is zero gravity, then there is no need for air plane to 'fly' in the air. But i guess your question is wether the propeller will work in zero gravity atmosphere. I think it still applicable coz what matter is the air pressure instead of gravity. In an enclosed/confined space, air pressure will exist even without gravity. But on Earth, the air pressure is due to gravity.
In order to push the air particles (changing the velocity of the air particles), we need force. According to Newton 3rd law regarding of action and reaction, there is a force to push on the propeller simultenously. So the propeller still work fine. Besides, we can assume bcoz it's zero gravity, the air pressure migh be lower, so the propelled force might be lesser as well.
