https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-02467-3
Regular Article
The physical leaky tank car problem, revisited
1
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Napoli, Complesso Universitario di Monte S. Angelo, Via Cinthia, 80126, Naples, Italy
2
Dipartimento di Fisica “Ettore Pancini”, Universita’ di Napoli “Federico II”, Complesso Universitario di Monte S. Angelo, Via Cinthia, 80126, Naples, Italy
3
Independent scholar, Via Anfiteatro 3, 80078, Pozzuoli, Italy
a
salvatore.esposito@na.infn.it
Received:
9
November
2021
Accepted:
9
February
2022
Published online:
20
February
2022
An exhaustive analysis of the leaky tank car problem is presented, pointing out its intriguing physical properties, which also well serve to students and teachers for illustrating standard Newtonian mechanics in a highly nonstandard fashion. Calculus is effectively required only to examine some details concerning the solution of the equation of motion and interesting limiting cases, while we unveil all the physical content of the problem, within a proper simple model and its generalization, ranging from the motion of the leaky tank car to that of the water flowing from the car with their peculiarities. Generalizations of the problem to more than one draining hole (even with different sizes), as well as to “two-dimensional” geometries, reveal further intriguing results, culminating into a no-rotation theorem and its corollaries.
The original online version of this article was revised to correct affiliation 2.
A correction to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-02535-8.
Copyright comment corrected publication 2022
© The Author(s) 2022. corrected publication 2022
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