[ExI] underwater sprinkler, was: RE: Musical instruments in space

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of BillK
Subject: Re: [ExI] Musical instruments in space

On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 5:58 AM, spike  wrote:
>> ... I have played a sax while hanging upside down.  I couldn’t 
> tell much difference.  It gave me a headache and stuffy sinuses, but 
> the horn played OK.  spike
>


>...You forgot the obligatory 'Don't ask!'.
Must have been a good party.    :)  BillK

_______________________________________________


I admit with embarrassment that I have no such excuse as a wild party.  We used to do stuff like this all the time back in my college days while completely sober.  My first alcohol was after college was over.  I lived in a house across the street from the engineering building where we had 17 engineers, one mathematician, one physicist and one civilian.  I know, it sounds like I am setting you up for a joke, but that's what it was.  We had fun.

Perhaps you have heard of the Myth Busters?  If not, look it up and be delighted.  We were the proto-myth busters.  

An example of the kinds of stuff we used to do is from a Feynman question.  You have seen those S-shaped lawn sprinklers, turn on the water, they spin.  What would happen if you took one of those, submerged it in water, connected the hose to a pump and pulled water thru it backwards?  Would it turn the opposite direction, since the tips of the arms would act as nozzles in reverse?  Or would it turn the same direction as before, since the water is creating centrifugal force as it goes around the bend?  Or would the forces exactly cancel and not turn?  Or a fourth possibility that blows your mind?

I know the answer from experiment.  Can you figure it out from math and thought experiment?

spike