> Well, I should wrap this up. I originally intended to do a simple counterpoint, and ended up with a lengthy (for me) scientific discussion of the principles involved. I hope somebody gets SOMETHING out of that. BTW, I welcome any further discussion on the subject-- I wrote this out mostly to see if I could reason out an argument based on scientific principles, but some of my science is a little rusty, and I would appreciate any further discussion or corrections.
>
> Don


This whole thing reminds me of the conundrum, if that's the word, of the bird in the cage. If a bird is in an airtight cage attached to a scale and it starts to fly, will the scale read the same or less than before? I believe the answer is no as the bird still exerts downward pressure on the air below which in turn affects the scales.
Am I right in thinking this?

Bea 'Materials science degree didn't really cover this' sty