The only way for the spring to remain stretched is if there are TWO forces acting on it in opposite directions. When one of those forces goes away (you drop the spring), it will always oscillate as it falls, no matter what the other force is. It will not remain stretched out. This is true if it was gravity, an accelerating spaceship, a magnetic field, the spinning space station in 2001, a mass you were swinging over your head, or the guy next to you.

_________________
KGS 4 kyu - Game Archive - Keyboard Otaku

hey fwiffo, not sure i agree, in a uniform magnetic field sure, certainly. but in an unbalanced magnetic field where its more forceful at the bottom than the top it should stay stretch out during free fall.

I admire the patience of Amnal and Violence. I also somehow respect Phillip, I dont think he is trolling, though I would advise him to read the book shown here.

I've a PhD in this... did physics research for 20 years... and taught at undergrad, postgrad and PhD level.

First law of physicists.. don't get drawn into this type of thread... the OP will neither understand or believe you.

Second law of physicists: respects other people opinions and beliefs and just smile in a knowing way. This way you will remain popular and appear open minded.

Third law of physicists- if the topic moves on to physics.. change the topic of conversation as quickly as you can.... try talking about cars/girls/sport...

Trust me... physicists are strange and viewed as such.

I am reminded of a story about Einstein and Marilyn Munro.. One night she left his bedroom (he was about 60 at the time) having spent most of the day there. She looked dishevelled and a little distressed. Out came Einstein with a big smile on his face and revealed to one of his colleague that, after only a few hours he believed that Marilyn now understood all he had to say about special relativity...

Geeze... magnetic monopole.. do you really believe any one will understand an artefact of Maxwells equations..and centre of mass problems ..... cars/girls/sport..

Yes, and when this happens with gravity we call it tidal force. If you had a very long spring, or a very steep gravitation field (e.g. near a black hole), you could get the same effect. The force on one end of the spring is greater than the other - just as if you were pulling on the two ends - so the spring stretches out.

The previous discussion was that of a more Earth-like, human-scale situation though.

_________________
KGS 4 kyu - Game Archive - Keyboard Otaku

in many ways i'm glad i started this topic. i know i made myself an idiot, but what bettter way to learn?

i won't delve into a discussion about magnetism given my obvious ignorance about even gravity and it's affects.
i'm very thankful to both anmal, violence, fwiffo and others for thier patience with me.

It's pretty clear that it's not just a hypothesis, matter does expand over time.

Proof: waistlines