You work for a balloon delivery service and you are delivering a single, helium-filled balloon in your car. To prevent the balloon from bouncing around on the ceiling while you are driving you have tied a string with a weight on it to the balloon. The weight is resting on the floor and the balloon is floating just below the ceiling.

When you accelerate, does the balloon stay where it is, move backward, or move forward? What does it do when you make a turn?

Assume all the windows are closed and the vents are turned off so there is no air flow inside the car to affect the balloon.

(In reply to re(2): SOLUTION IS WRONG by JayDeeKay)

THANK YOU JayDeeKay!

I wrote this problem after witnessing the phenomenon myself.  I was astounded by the balloon's reaction so I decided to post it here.  My explanation of why the balloon was doing what it was doing may not have been completely accurate but I can assure you that the results ARE correct.

I suppose in the interest of the scientific method I should ask if anyone else tried it and whether or not they got the same results.

Edited on February 3, 2009, 7:08 pm

Edited on March 6, 2009, 8:27 pm

Posted by Sing4TheDay on 2008-12-23 14:35:40