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Slinky in Space!


Gareth56

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If an astronaut went outside the space shuttle (all protective clothing worn of course) and attached one end of a slinky to the shuttle could the astronaut create a longitudinal(or transverse) wave in the slinky?

Edited by Gareth56
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If you're thinking, "in the vacuum of space there's no mechanical medium for waves to propagate" then unthink it, because the slinky is the medium.

 

Oh...

 

Not that there are not certain practical difficulties/inconveniences involved. The slinky is a very weak spring, so if the astronaut is attempting to string it between himself in freefall and the spacecraft he'll slowly get pulled towards the spacecraft. So it would be hard to be absolutely at rest wrt to the spacecraft while pulsing it. However it's so weak that probably a flick of a finger against the hull would send the astronaut quite a way out before the tension pulled him back again.

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