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master3243 t1_isc3kp7 wrote

Reply to comment by Co0k1eGal3xy in [R] Mind's Eye: Grounded Language Model Reasoning through Simulation - Google Research 2022 by Singularian2501

They fall at the same rate

https://www.wired.com/2013/10/do-heavier-objects-really-fall-faster/

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Co0k1eGal3xy t1_isc5m6k wrote

>But what about the basketball and the bowling ball? Shouldn't they have different accelerations? Technically, yes.
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>[...]
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>it turns out that there are many situations where a heavier object does indeed hit the ground before a lighter object (because of air resistance).

Your link says the heavy baseball and the light baseball would fall at different rates.

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master3243 t1_iscb9mu wrote

My link also says that heavier objects can fall slower than light objects. As in the styrofoam board that was heavier than the small ball yet it fell slower.

In the absence of more detail such as the dynamics of the shapes and the inclusion of air drag or not, it is fair to say that the most correct answer to the "which" question is "both". I would only count the "heavy first" answer as correct IF it included the discussion on air drag, otherwise the correct answer is "both". But that's my opinion and not objectively the only way to interpret this.

Especially given a model that has so many physics articles/material included in it's dataset, it's a pretty big fail that it can't answer this properly.

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Co0k1eGal3xy t1_iscd0no wrote

>In the absence of more detail such as the dynamics of the shapes

Baseball's have a standard diameter and shape.

It's theoretically possible that the heavier baseball has a "furry" surface or something like that, but it's such an unlikely case I didn't consider it when reading the paper.

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>it's a pretty big fail that it can't answer this properly.

I emailed the authors and they said "there could be some pre conditions we have not presented in the screenshot" and that they would address it when they released a dataset.

Sounds like it's all sorted out now. No harm done.

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