FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[racechick]

My heads hurting just a little bit But thanks for all the replies. I will pass them all on and think on them myself

[andrew]

Momentum.

People get travel sick because of moving up and down, i think.

I thought it was to do with your eyes seeing things going at a different speed to your body feeling them? Still not sure how that fits in with the fly though?

I dunno how it fits in with the fly but you asked I mean, people get travel sick on boats and planes, where you can't always see things moving past...

There are many causes.

Motion sickness

[stonemonkey]

My heads hurting just a little bit But thanks for all the replies. I will pass them all on and think on them myself

It might sound strange but it's friction against the air that causes the fly to accelerate, the air mass itself is being accelerated with the car so anything light and floaty will be accelerated with that air mass.

[acosmichippo]

It's the movement of the air inside the car that causes the fly to accelerate with the car, say you have a flat surface inside the car with a bowling ball on it, when the car accelerates the ball will tend to stay motionless with respect to the ground and shoot to the back of the car, the same thing happens with the fly, it's inertia will try to keep it motionless with respect to the ground, but because of it's high air resistance/mass (compared to the bowling ball) the air resistance will accelerate the fly forward.

You accelerate with the car because of the force exerted by the seat on your body, the fly is accelerated by the force exerted on it by the air inside the car.

Are you sure a fly would accelerate with a car while in flight (without compensating on its own)? If a fly generates that much resistance from air, it would be a horribly inefficient flyer. And dead flies drop like, well... Flies.

[The_Stig_Money]

The air in the car that the fly is floating in, is traveling the same speed as the car.

[Stealthgate007]

bodies in motion tend to stay in motion. Kinda makes me wonder. Star Trek has enertia dampers, so when the go to warp, they don't end up crushed into the walls of the ship... The Fly is in its own private dampning field.. The air in the car..

I believe the earth rotates at 7 miles per second, and we cant feel it or do we go flying off.. The larger the ratio of space and matter, the less the effect of enertia on that matter... Maybe?

[bud]

The air in the car that the fly is floating in, is traveling the same speed as the car.

and the fly isn't just floating, it is powering its flight.

Im thinking maybe its to do with the air pressure being stable in the car, the fly can power itself and go unnoticed by the motion of the vehicle. Open a window and see how happy the fly is then

[Hammer278]

Haven't read all the replies here, but my 2 cents...It's all theory of relativity.

In terms of the fly, what's relative to it? The car, the air in the car - which is what the fly is relative to.

When the fly is in the car, the air and car is travelling at a certain speed thus the fly would also be travelling at that speed. So when its flying around in the car, the environment and individual matter around the fly is travelling at a certain speed.

Imagine yourself jumping in a bus. You can be sure if you jump and somehow manage to float during the jump, you'll start to go backwards! Same way, if you hit the brakes in the car, the fly will go splat against the windscreen.

In terms of motion sickness, I think acomissmo gave the best answer. It's to do with your brain and your senses not correlating (or disagreeing) with one another which causes for motion sickness. Which is why it happens in varying degrees to each individual, I think all of us have it but most of us just cope better that we think we don't have it.

[stonemonkey]

It's the movement of the air inside the car that causes the fly to accelerate with the car, say you have a flat surface inside the car with a bowling ball on it, when the car accelerates the ball will tend to stay motionless with respect to the ground and shoot to the back of the car, the same thing happens with the fly, it's inertia will try to keep it motionless with respect to the ground, but because of it's high air resistance/mass (compared to the bowling ball) the air resistance will accelerate the fly forward.

You accelerate with the car because of the force exerted by the seat on your body, the fly is accelerated by the force exerted on it by the air inside the car.

Are you sure a fly would accelerate with a car while in flight (without compensating on its own)? If a fly generates that much resistance from air, it would be a horribly inefficient flyer. And dead flies drop like, well... Flies.

What would happen if you removed the front and rear windscreens?

[acosmichippo]

obviously it would get blown around like crazy. But the greatest factor of force from drag is velocity (squared) of the air in relation to the object, so high-speed streams of air suddenly filling the cabin will have a huge effect on the fly - much more-so than gradually accelerating from naught to whatever speed you're driving at. But even if a car were to hit an immovable structure like a brick wall so the car (and air within it) went from high-speed to naught almost instantly, I still think the fly would continue through the air toward the windshield. Of course, its speed would certainly be decreased by drag, but not enough to stop it with the car before it hit the windshield.

I'm willing to bet that if you had a fly mid-flight in a sealed jar or aquarium and began shaking it, it wouldn't hold its position very well. Rather, it would rattle around the sides of the jar. Or alternatively, if you tied a dead fly to the roof of a car by floss, you would see it lean toward the back of the car as you accelerate.

[LewEngBridewell]

If there were no front or rear windows, wouldn't the fly just blow out of the car?

[racechick]

When I open all my car windows to get a fly out it wont go. Should I try opening only the back windows and accelerating very very quickly?

[andrew]

Should I try opening only the back windows and accelerating very very quickly?

Only if there is no one in front of you.

[racechick]

Should I try opening only the back windows and accelerating very very quickly?

Only if there is no one in front of you.

Good point. Im usually ok going forwards...Its just going backwards when I run into problems

[andrew]

Watch the Blues Brothers and learn their parking technique. You'll never need to reverse again.

If you find going backwards difficult then this'll blow your mind - I going to be learning to go sideways as soon as there are enough folk that need to go sideways!