MPMin

How does the above apply to the conservation of momentum when a rock is being thrown the other way as well?

Can we go back to the throwing of the rock anology: In the situation where the same rock was being thrown and rebounded back to the thrower (perfect elastics collision) but now at the same time as the rock is being thrown at the trampoline, the thrower is also able to throw another rock (exactly same mass and velocity) in the opposite direction to the other rock being thrown at the trampoline at exactly the same time; would this system be able to develop acceleration?

Is the problem having stored energy on the platform? What If the system was powered by solar panels?

In my mind the wires are fixed in parallel to each other. I’m also struggling to understand how shifting mass and matter are involved in terms of generating the propulsion. I know the objective is to ultimately move the entire mass and in traditional reaction propulsion systems rely on moving mass but I cant see how that applies to moving magnetic waves? I can understand shifting mass back and forth wont work because mass because cant be switched on and off but electromagnetic radiation can be switched on and off. By pulsing a current through a wire you bring a magnetic into existence that wasn’t there before without shifting mass to do so. I’m sure my error is clear to you all but i still don’t see it, please help me understand.

Ive seen experiments on utube where wires carrying currents can repel or attract each other depending in which way the currents are going. If I’m not mistaken, in a closed system in space the two forces from the wires would cancel each other out thus producing no momentum. But what if an extremely short current was pulsed through one of the wires causing an extremely short magnetic field pulse that emanated outward from the first wire expanding outward as a growing ring in every direction from that wire and also heading toward the other wire, keeping in mind that the pulse had left the first wire no longer in contact with the first wire. If the second wire were to also have a current pulsed through it as the first magnetic pulse approached, why wouldn’t that second wire move?

Please help me understand something: Is light energy also known as photons? When a current passes through a wire and creates a magnetic field around the wire, is the wire creating photons or photon energy as well as a magnetic field or are they the same thing: To help me understand the concept of this i need to picture it on a larger scale; It takes about 8 mins for the light from the sun to reach the earth, If you were able to make the sun completely vanish instantly, would the earth still receive light and stay in orbit for 8 minutes after the sun disappeared?

Yes i now see that the throwing and rebounding of the rock in a closed system conserves the mass thus preventing any momentum being generated. What if instead of a rock being thrown its a pulse of magnetic field instead? Lets say instead of having a person throwing a rock at one end and a trampoline at the other end of the platform in space, there are two electro magnets at either end in place of the person and the trampoline. If you were able to generate a short pulse of magnetic field from one end, (the pulse would have to be short enough to leave the first electromagnet before it arrived at the other electro magnet) travel towards the other electro magnet as a free floating pulse, just as the pulse arrives at the other magnet, that magnet is turned in to repel the on coming magnetic pulse: would this generate momentum?

If the rock is returned to the thrower from the trampoline with less energy (because some was lost in heat and friction on impact with the trampoline) doesn’t that produce a difference between the forces producing the momentum in either direction?

Let’s say you only have one rock and the board is like a trampoline allowing for a perfect elastic collision assuming some energy loss due to heat and friction created on impact with the trampoline and you could throw the rock an infinite amount of times because the rock returns to each time you throw it, could you then generate momentum?

I understand that the rock hitting the backboard cancels out the force but can someone please explain why the platform wouldn’t move while the rock was in flight on its way to the backboard?

A friend and I were having a debate as to wether this theory holds true: Please try to imagine that you were motionless in free space (relative to whatever....) and you were standing on one end of a plank with your feet firmly secured to the plank, and at the other end of the plank there was a board much like a basketball back board firmly secured to the plank facing you. Please Imagine you had pockets full of good sized rocks, if you were to throw a rock at the back board, you and the plank along with the back board would move in the opposite direction to the rock until the rock hit the back board, then at that point the rock hitting the backboard would cancel out the motion bringing the plank to a stand still again? For the purpose of this theory, please exclude any energy loss from flexibility of the man throwing the rock or any energy loss due to the absorption of energy by the back board or any energy loss due to rotation, just try to imagine that 100% of the rock’s energy is transferred to the backboard on impact. If you had an infinite amount of rocks in your pocket, could you continue to move in a start stop fashion by continually throwing the rocks at the back board? Additional notes: My friend was caught up on the blowing your own sail paradox where the forces cancel each other out, but in my theory, the forces only cancel out when the rock hits the back board, while the rock is travelling toward the backboard, the plank and everything fixed to it will move in the opposite direction of the rock until the rock hits, if this process can be repeated many times with infinite rocks then the plank should continue to move in the same direction as long as the rock keep getting thrown at the board?