What's the chances of her daughter not being totally screwed up?

About the same as Frances Bean's.

I don't believe you. Air doesn't weigh anything! That's why it's air.

Tell it to the bathysphere.

Explain why string theory is crap.

Here you go. Well, actually, that explains why string theory is mindblowingly cool. If ridiculously theoretical.

well, Howard seemed fairly normal in the beginning. Maybe now that Anna (and the cameras) are gone, he'll go back to being a regular guy.

Considering she's going to have two men fighting over custody of her because of her potential to inherit hundreds of millions of dollars--yeah, she's doomed to fuckedupedness for sure.

Clearly I've been trying to TA in the wrong country. Then again, no amusement rides is a small price to pay for not-teaching-in-English in-front-of-native-speakers, so maybe I'll pass.

ita, think of it the other way around, maybe: if it were a little ball on the floor of the car, and the car accelerated, does it make sense to you that the ball moves backwards?

Now, if the ball moved backwards, what takes its place in the forward part of the car? Some of the air inside the car. So the air that was in the back actually moved forward, right?

Now replace the ball with the air, and the air with the Helium balloon, and when I say it this way it sounds way more confusing than it was in my head, so maybe you shouldn't read what I just posted. Hmm.

[Edit: Allyson, all they want me to talk about in class is special relativity and quntum mechanics and string theory. And, um, I don't really know anything about any of it. Well, a bit of quantum mechanics, maybe, but that's it.]

And this difference in density between the balloon and the air around it is sufficient to provide this effect?

Yes. I mean, I assume so.

::goes off to buy a bunch of helium balloons and to rent a Mustang GT::

You have a frictionless rollercoaster on an airless planet with a gravity of 10m/s^2. The drive that takes the cars from the flat platform area to the first drop imparts a velocity of 1m/s at the very top of the first drop. The cars arrive back at the platform area with a velocity of 41m/s before braking. How tall is the first drop relative to the platform?

Oooh, when I stopped by, I thought the 300 new posts might have been about ANS. I feel bad for missing Buffista jeopardy (especially since I know who visited the Michistas) but on the other hand, you guys would have made it impossible to get any work done!

Nilly, I get the physics of it. I was just wondering if there was a...fuck...I'm drawing a blank...turning point in relative densities that ensures it happens, and with real world considerations (friction, etc) if it plays out that way.

especially since I know who visited the Michistas

...was that question actually answered?

You have a frictionless rollercoaster on an airless planet with a gravity of 10m/s^2. The drive that takes the cars from the flat platform area to the first drop imparts a velocity of 1m/s at the very top of the first drop. The cars arrive back at the platform area with a velocity of 41m/s before braking. How tall is the first drop relative to the platform?

20m?