Hourglass of constant weight as an illustrative example of a system with a variable mass
Physics Education
2023-02-16 v1 Classical Physics
Abstract
We provide an alternative approach to a problem posed in the article "Hourglass of Constant Weight" by Volker Becker and Thorsten P\"{o}schel, which appeared in Granular Matter 10 (2008), 231-232, i.e. 14 years ago. Our goal to return to this article after so much time is purely pedagogical. Although there is a slight and subtle inaccuracy in the derivation of equation (8) in the work of Becker and P\"{o}schel, which we correct, we use this circumstance only to give a detailed pedagogical exposition of an excellent physical problem and to show the pedagogical usefulness of the concept of momentum flux when considering the mechanics of systems with variable mass.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2302.07830,
title = {Hourglass of constant weight as an illustrative example of a system with a variable mass},
author = {Vladimir V. Kassandrov and Zurab K. Silagadze},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.07830},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
14 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Granular Matter