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Why dont your drinks spill in air planes even when youre going 500+ miles an hour.? |
Travel Info Why dont your drinks spill in air planes even when youre going 500+ miles an hour.? Travel Tips What is there to make them spill? Two things should make your cup tip and spill: (1) Something physically pushes on the cup and tips it, or (2) The plane moves at something OTHER than steady flight (there's an acceleration of some kind). In physics they are effectively the same thing. If you're flying in a straight line at a steady speed, that is effectively (as far as physics is concerned) as if you are sitting still [which is after all a kind of steady speed; a speed of zero]. You and your drinks and the cup and the table and the air in the plane are all moving together smoothly. There's nothing to change the position of the cup or the drink (relative to the table). Anything that changes either the direction or the speed of your drink is a "force" which imparts some kind of "acceleration" in some direction. If the plane suddenly speeds up, slows down, climbs, sinks, or changes direction fast enough to provide enough force on the drink, the drink will move and may spill. (The change in the plane's path or speed is imparting an acceleration onto you and your drink, in the direction of the change.) If you are sitting outside on the wing, the 620-mph wind blast is quite a force; it's sure to spill your drink. But if you are inside, and everything is moving together in there all at the same speed, and nothing is pushing on your drink, then there's nothing to make the drink spill. Source(s): This is basic mechanics or physics. Other Travel Tips If you hit turbulence you may get spillage. The plane is level and going forward. Not scientific but practical. Because the plane is in a static state while cruising. As in there is a balance of forces acting on the plane. That is also why you don't feel any pressure on the back of the seat like you do when you take off. During take off you don't have a balance of force and you are accelerating as the forward force from the engine exceeds friction and drag being the forces counter acting on the engine. the g force is outside the plane, that is why they don't start serving drinks until the plane is level and at a steady speed Technically speaking, the drinks are traveling at the same rate as the airplane. It is the same concept as to why an apple thrown vertically upward by someone on a moving bus does not travel backwards but rather returns to its original position. I guess you can also look at it in x- and y-components. Both the apple and the bus (like the airplane and the drinks) are moving in same direction in the same plane. The drink is moving at the same relative speed as the plane. Therefore, it does not move. In addition, the two accelerate at the same rate. |
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