I heard that if a car accelerates from rest, a balloon would move forwards instead of backward. Why is this? Science says it’s because of density, but I don’t get their explanation. It also seems like it’s violating newton’s first law.
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When you accelerate your car the air in it moves along with the car because it has nowhere to go. This is why when you drive your car you don’t feel a rush of air (other than the air conditioner).
The air in you car is about 80% nitrogen, 20% oxygen and maybe a few other trace gases thrown in. The mass of a helium balloon including that teensy bit of rubber is probably near indistinguishable from the mass of the air inside your car and thus will probably behave like it’s just ‘part of the gang’.
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