this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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The portal is a hole. The hole is moving. The conservation of momentum is the hole moving as it continues to move along the track. If the people start moving, where does that momentum come from?
Imagine a tennis racket with no strings. Two portals are stretched across the space the strings would normally be, back to back, one orange one blue. If you threw a ball in the air as if you were going to serve and swung the racket, the ball would pass straight through the portals as if they weren't there and would fall straight down due to gravity. The ball maintains its conservation of momentum, and the tennis racket holding the portals also maintains its conservation of momentum as it swings through the air. There is no force applied by a hole.
Lets say the tennis racket has 2 portals. One in the front and one in the back. When you swing the racket, the front portal moves forwards with some speed V. The portal on the back is moving backwards with the same speed, so -V (same speed V, but in opposite direction). A stationary ball, suspended in mid-air would have 0 speed. The racket portal approaches the ball at speed V, so the ball has a relative speed V to the racket. The portal on the back has a speed of -V and ven you combine that with the ball's speed of V, we get -V+V=0. And so the ball stays put. The portals in the image are not both in motion. The front portal is approaching the people with a speed of V and so the relative speed of the people to the portal is V. The exit portal has a speed of 0, relative to the people. When the people go through the portal, their speed is 0+V=V, meaning they get launched out the exit portal with the same speed the entrance portal hit them.
Interesting way to look at it, but I still dont see where the force is acting on the object going through the portal. The object is not in motion and will stay in that state unless something acts upon it, so where is the energy coming from to act on the object?
To make it clear from the start: I agree 100% with B - there has to be movement, because without it, people wouldn't come out of the portal at all. And if there is a movement, then the only reasonable speed would be that of the train.
But: Your question about the energy is still interesting. It must come from somewhere. And I think, the only source, from which it can come, is the train. That is, the train would lose energy and therefore slow down.
The portal moves towards the people. It's a hole. Momentum won't transfer from nothing as the hole is the one moving.
So, how would the people come out of the portal without movement?
Because the portal is moving them through it
Like how you would move through a hoop if it passed through you, it's just a door through space
Do we agree that the massive block with the blue portal is not moving? So, imagine we are standing right in front of it when it happens - what happens exactly? How do the people appear?
Yes the blue portal isn't moving
The people appear because the orange portal is moving towards them, the people then, like through a moving door, just pop out the other side.
It's a door way through space, not a momentum giving portal.
Can you not see the orange portal moving? They don't jump through it, this carrying their own momentum through. They are stationary through it so coming out they will also be stationary
Of course I see the orange portal moving. So we agree the orange portal is moving, the blue is stationary.
So, when you're saying "the people just pop out the other side". What does that mean? Do they pop out one by one? So one moment, no one is there, the next moment one person spawns and after that the third person spawns? Or do they spawn altogether? Or does each person come from the portal centimeter by centimeter, atom by atom - pushing through the portal?