by Warren » Oct 12, 2004 @ 5:45pm
The kid is correct if you say that the Earth does not change the horizontal direction of the plane via gravity, because if there was no gravity, then to follow the Earth, you'd have to point slightly down, which would because it's not going in a circle, would be acceleration. One could also say that because gravity causes the plane to go around in a circle, then according to the plane, there is no acceleration. One can say everything is moving in reference to something else.
Now if the question specificed that the distance the plane traveled was 1 meter, then would you say that it's accelerating? The Earth's surface DOES bend in 1 meter, so would you say that to keep a consant altitude that the plane would have to accelerate? If you one that argues that yes the plane accelerates, then you'd probably argue that because time is different for the moving plane, it's not actually a meter in reference to the plane, it's slightly shorter, so whatever.
Focusing on work... thank you internet (p.s. fuck you)
