Can someone explain to me the last part about the items standing still and no force acting on them? Isn't gravity acting on them, pulling the earth and items together?
The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]
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Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]
#62Can someone explain to me the last part about the items standing still and no force acting on them? Isn't gravity acting on them, pulling the earth and items together?
Imagine being inside of a closed box like an elevator. Without leaving the box there is no way to tell the difference from being in free fall towards Earth versus floating in interstellar space. Therefor, general relativity take the perspective that gravity is a fictitious force (like centrifugal force) that arises from the shape of spacetime.
Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]
#63Science is amazing.
Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]
#64I love how professionals who work at that facility and have probably deeply understood those principles for decades still display so much wonder at seeing this experiment with their own eyes.
I might be cynical, but I think they were putting on a show a bit. They already had some sort of apparatus set up to do the simultaneous drops. My guess is that it's a standard demonstration for visiting dignitaries and the like.
I agree you're being a bit cynical.
They are used to the chamber and with experiments in the chamber, but this simple experiment with a feather and a iron ball is very different from what they usually see.
They probably usually see only heavy objects and mechanisms for space projects being tested there. Such a graphic and basic experiment must be well outside the norm.
Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]
#65I wish the producers were less enamoured of their slow-mo and showed us the whole thing in real-time. The "weird" thing is seeing feathers plummet to the ground and I wish we got to see more of that.
This is a Brian Cox show we're talking about, not a science show. I'm surprised there weren't more slow mo shots of Cox doing his "boyish wonder" face.
His 'boyish wonder', although personally I think it's genuine, does get annoying to those of us who have their own wonder to contend with. Though, perhaps, those completely devoid of it themselves appreciate the cues.
I really don't mind Cox... what I despise is the trend of putting comedians in to science and politics shows in an attempt to relieve the dowdiness (Sorry Dara). Then again, I'm one of those people who used to sneak downstairs in the early hours to watch the dusty math and science stuff the BBC used to broadcast for teachers to record on VHS.
Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a Brian Cox show we're talking about, not a science show. I'm surprised there weren't more slow mo shots of Cox doing his "boyish wonder" face.
His 'boyish wonder', although personally I think it's genuine, does get annoying to those of us who have their own wonder to contend with. Though, perhaps, those completely devoid of it themselves appreciate the cues. I really don't mind Cox... what I despise is the trend of putting comedians in to science and politics shows in an attempt to relieve the dowdiness (Sorry Dara). Then again, I'm one of those people who…
Alan Alda has done a great job of bringing charisma and humor to science shows without dumbing anything down. The key is to find a comedian/actor/whatever who has a genuine interest in the material.
Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quick list of more inventions that are not Tang http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies
Even something as mundane as error correction coding were developed at NASA, for communicating with spacecraft - technology that's now present in e.g. CD/DVDs, and every mobile communication system. Now, if they hadn't developed it, someone else probably would, but perhaps not at that time - leaving us at years behind where we currently are with e.g. the speeds on our mobile devices.
Error Correction Coding is hardly mundane and in modern communication systems far from trivial. There is a lot more to ECC than Reed-Solomon. Basically nothing in our digital world today would work very long without it. You think of it as mundane only because it just works.
Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a Brian Cox show we're talking about, not a science show. I'm surprised there weren't more slow mo shots of Cox doing his "boyish wonder" face.
I too though this "boyish wonder" face was phony. And yet the "boyish wonder" face will change the fate of the whole video when I show it to my 7yo. The rest is concrete and iron, not really appealing to kids, despite the potential awesomeness of the huge vacuum chamber.
I was laughing and giggling the whole time myself - I'm pretty sure I had a similar look on my face. In fact almost everyone else in the video had a similar goofy look at one point or another!
It's one thing to know that this will happen, it's another entirely to see it happen.
Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]
#69I wish the producers were less enamoured of their slow-mo and showed us the whole thing in real-time. The "weird" thing is seeing feathers plummet to the ground and I wish we got to see more of that.
For me the "weird"/unusual/interesting thing is seeing the feathers bounce after hitting the ground.
Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]
#70I know how this will turn out but my intuition is screaming otherwise.
Just imagine the air to be made up of a bunch of tiny physical balls. The bowling ball does a good job of getting them out of the way fast but the feather trips and stumbles on them as it makes it's way. With none of these tiny air balls in the way both objects move unimpeded until they hit the earth.