That's an interesting thought. It would rise, I think. But I believe it would rise not because of momentum lost by the refrigerator, but because of an unbalanced, external force acting on that less dense pocket of air, namely, gravity, which would give the air pocket an impulse. In a room filled...
My second question was not intended to call into question the validity of the law of conservation of momentum, but rather the validity of the system it was being applied on. I thought that, since some of the particles were interacting with the air, the surrounding environment would have to be...
I agree, and I did not think I made a claim to the contrary. Though, I suppose it's possible.
Momentum, as I understand it, is a way of quantifying relative motion. That it can be transferred does not make it material in the sense that there is a particle of momentum, it means that momentum is...
I have considered that, yet perhaps inadequately or with error:
If a small portion of coil is considered, then momentum and kinetic energy will be lost in all directions (though the momentum as a whole will always be zero for the air/refrigerator system). The momentum lost toward the back of...
Thank you for your quick response. I think I understand:
Any momentum that is lost is too negligible to overcome the force of friction holding it to the ground, then?
If the ground were very smooth, would it indeed begin to scoot forward?
Edit:
Any momentum that is lost is too negligible for...
One more, related question that I have been grappling with:
A ballistic pendulum is a device which can be used to calculate the velocity of a bullet to a reasonable degree of accuracy. The end of the pendulum is large, massive, and designed with a material that renders the collision the bullet...
A refrigerator has coils in back that get hot, and heat is molecular motion. These moving molecules have both energy and momentum. Why doesn't the refrigerator need to be tied to the wall to keep it from recoiling from the momentum it loses out the back?