If a spaceship had a flag, would it wave as the spaceship moved through space?
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Only from vibrations within the ship, traveling through the post or whatever it was attached to.
Hi /u/BluebellsMcGee!
In order to answer this question, we have to remember that acceleration in space is indistinguishable from standing still on the surface of a planet. That is, if you are in a windowless room, there is no experiment you could perform that will tell you whether you are in an accelerating spacecraft or at rest on the ground of a planet.
As a consequence, when a spacecraft is burning, the conditions on the craft are equivalent to standing upright on a (rather large) planet. Therefore, the flag will be drawn towards the rear of the craft, as it would be on a planet.
If the spacecraft is not burning, no external forces are acting on on it, thus the flag will be force-free as and will not be drawn in any direction.
It would not wave, but the law of motion would cause it to be straight out behind. This is due to the pull of the pole/attachment tugging on one side while the rest tried to remain at rest.
It will wave because of its pendulum motion and vibrations of the ship, not because of wind. Unless there is some kind of change or vibration though that waving will stop relatively quickly (minutes). Frankly if you want to fly a flag from a spaceship you’ll probably have the pole wave a bit to simulate the effect you want.
If the ship was accelerating, it would “hang” toward the back of the ship, as if it was hanging down from a horizontal pole on Earth, with no wind. When the ship stopped accelerating, it would spring forward a bit, from released tension, but would then float freely until it reached a point where no forces were acting on it, where it would stay.
It’s also possible that it might wave a bit from the impact of random particles, but that would be almost undetectable. The density of gas in a very, very dense nebula is about 1,000,000,000,000 times less than our atmosphere, and the vast majority of space is far more empty than that.
Wave, no. And I think it would extend forward from the pole most of the time, when you are coasting.
Assume we have a traditional rocket and not the Millennium Falcon or something. The flag pole extends perpendicular to the directions the rockets generally fire. Rockets use a lot of fuel, so they only burn a small portion of the time. While the spacecraft is accelerating it will be dragging the flag, which will be taut behind the pole. The pole will be flexed backward just a tiny bit by the flag’s inertia. When the rocket engines turn off the flag’s inertia will be the same as the rockets, but the force on the flag poe will disappear and it will unfelt, straighten out, and thus impart just a tiny bit of inertia to the flat. The flag will thus be going a teeny, tiny bit faster than the rocket, and will thus swing out in front of the pole, bounce a bit, and come to rest, probably in a somewhat rumpled state, not taut.
Once its internal friction brings it to rest it will just float there alongside the rocket until there is more acceleration from the engines. Acceleration from gravity will affect the rocket and flag the same, so you should see any movement from entering or leaving orbit or swinging around a planet if those things are done without the engines.
If I recall correctly, when astronauts were placing a flag on the moon, the pole didn’t extend all the way. They kept it like that because it made it look like it was fluttering.
Its called relativity for a reason 🙂
Instead of thinking you are moving, you could say you sit still and everything else is moving. There is nothing you move through, nothing that could make your flag wave.
Only from vibration from your ship maybe.
It would probably bunch up due to the ridiculous static cling we aren’t used to experiencing.
Momentum would make it move. Solar winds within a solar system would make it move as well. It probably wouldn’t flap, but ripple as particles and strong enough energies collide with the material.
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