BoneHead's 'zero weight' explained to him

From : transurgeon

Q: tbone wrote i dont know what insurance company you are using but just about every policy i have read allows for the use of aftermarket parts provided they meet or exceed factory specifications. specifications often have little to do with quality. as sad as this sounds it tends to be the truth. ive used farmers state farm trans america and allstate. all can use aftermarket parts only with owners permission at least on my policies. the problem is that iirc that is only the case when you claim against your collision. the other insurance company can use whatever their policy says. my wifes car was involved is two accidents within three minutes of each other yea that was a fun evening and since neither was our fault the other persons insurance companies made the repairs and both of the other insurance companies had after market parts to be used provided they met or exceeded factory specs and the body shop guaranteed their work for life whatever that means. i must say the car looks great and this body shop is as busy as hell so i doubt that they will be going out of business anytime soon. state farm and allstate were both sued and lost for insisting on generic parts several years ago. insurers must restore a vehicle to pre-accident condition and generic parts cant do that. october 1999 an illinois jury found state farm liable for $456 million in damages and an additional $730 million in punitive damages bringing the total awards in the case to $1.19 billion. state farm has suspended specification of generic parts on estimates. the case involved policyholders in illinois who claimed that the insurer calculates auto repair estimates using the price of generic crash parts which are usually less expensive and that these parts do not restore the vehicle to its original pre-crash condition. plaintiffs lawyers had argued that the uniformity of state farms claims settlement practices merited the inclusion of all policyholders whose vehicles were repaired by state farm. the decision therefore paved the way for national class action suit potentially covering 5 million policyholders and involving claims valued at more than $2 billion. damn i guess that might be why even thought the companies that repaired my wifes car allowed the use of aftermarket parts they all seemed to be up to the job as far as fit and finish. i guess that i was lucky that the accident occurred after this decision and the insurance companies are a bit paranoid. -- if at first you dont succeed youre not cut out for skydiving .

Replies:

From : transurgeon

the idea that once something is supported by external forces it is rendered weightless is just plain silly. absolutely. this is easily demonstrated at home. fill a glass with water about 3/4 full. put it on a scale. now add an ice cube. the ice cube is floating in the water because it is slightly less dense than the water just like a balloon is less dense than the air around it. the scale shows the added weight of the ice cube. most reasonable people understand this concept almost intuitively. others claim selective application of the laws of gravity. .

From : tbone

of course it does. the farther you get away from the planet the lower the force of gravity acting on it is. then you can add to that the fact if it is actually flying there is a force being applied to it that is negating the force of gravity so in relation to the ground the airplane has no weight. now i realize that this is an abstract thought process which seems hard for most of you to understand but it still is what it is. -- if at first you dont succeed youre not cut out for skydiving tbone wrote if this were not true lighter than air aircraft would never leave the ground are you saying that an airplane in the air weighs less than it does on the ground .