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The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]

thekidshouldseethis.com

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Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]

#101

Post by mkagenius »

anigbrowl wrote: post #93
antimagic wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? No! I don't know about you, but I would have a silly grin on my face too if I actually got to see this experiment live - I mean it's such a classic result - we've all been told that this is what would happen, but very few of us actually get to see it. It's like the experience of seeing the moons of Jupiter the first time that you look at it through a telescope - yes, you know the moons are there, you've even se…

I find this perplexing. Obviously few of us would get to see a feather drop due to the lack of a huge vacuum chamber, but you can derive almost as much experimental entertainment by dropping, say, a ping-pong ball and a similarly sized marble or ball bearing. Really, I think the slow-motion camera has much more educational value than the vacuum chamber (cool as that is). When I was in school and we'd debate such thin…

> but you can derive almost as much experimental entertainment by dropping, say, a ping-pong ball and a similarly sized marble or ball bearing.

in a vacuum chamber, right? In air they wouldn't behave same.

Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]

#102

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #97
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it interesting that Brian Cox, the presenter and avowed scientist, obviously finds it so 'surprising' as well. Maybe that's the true meaning of being a scientist, though - he doesn't truly believe it until observing it with his own eyes.

I just watched this today - I've studied physics at Uni - I've done many experiments and known this result for a long-long time. However, this was actually the first time I've seen it myself. It is awesome to see something so un-intuitive but so well known actually occurring - like if you could actually see quantum tunnelling happening. If you don't find the world awesome then doing physics has got to be a pretty har…

This does quite a nice job of it, for me :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcDshWmhF4A

Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]

#103

Post by anigbrowl »

mkagenius wrote: post #101
anigbrowl wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this perplexing. Obviously few of us would get to see a feather drop due to the lack of a huge vacuum chamber, but you can derive almost as much experimental entertainment by dropping, say, a ping-pong ball and a similarly sized marble or ball bearing. Really, I think the slow-motion camera has much more educational value than the vacuum chamber (cool as that is). When I was in school and we'd debate such thin…

> but you can derive almost as much experimental entertainment by dropping, say, a ping-pong ball and a similarly sized marble or ball bearing. in a vacuum chamber, right? In air they wouldn't behave same.

Ping-pong ball was a thoughtless example, but many things of different weights will be Good Enough for the junior experimenter, eg plastic ans steel pipe sections dropped straight downwards.

Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]

#104

Post by macrael »

antimagic wrote: post #57
aragot wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What? No! I don't know about you, but I would have a silly grin on my face too if I actually got to see this experiment live - I mean it's such a classic result - we've all been told that this is what would happen, but very few of us actually get to see it. It's like the experience of seeing the moons of Jupiter the first time that you look at it through a telescope - yes, you know the moons are there, you've even se…

I was giddy just watching this video! I'm sure his joy was genuine. It's just amazing to see feathers fall straight and bounce(!) when they hit the ground.

Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]

#106

Post by th0ma5 »

rajdevar wrote: post #56

I live in Ohio, Never knew that the biggest vacuum chamber is here until now.

Yup yup, it is NASA Plumbrook, the old reactor south of Sandusky. On the way to Cedar Point as a kid I was always in awe of the place as it was so big and you could only get within a few miles of it. My sixth grade teacher claimed a three eyed frog he had in a jar came from a nearby pond.

Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]

#107

Post by Too »

smackfu wrote: post #80
hudibras wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>They already had some sort of apparatus set up to do the simultaneous drops. Why do you say that? They could have easily made the apparatus for this experiment.

The button he pressed when dropping had a label that said something like "launch jet sequence" (don't remember exactly). They probably have a modular set of actuator and rigs they can easily mess around with . :)

Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]

#108

Post by christiangenco »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #95
paddyoloughlin wrote: post #17

I 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.

Somebody on Reddit took that scene, sped it up to something close to normal time, and made a gif: http://gfycat.com/GentleMeaslyFattaileddunnart

The acceleration looks wrong. It looks like the show altered the footage to have constant speed, and Reddit just sped it up.

Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]

#109

Post by Joeri »

anigbrowl wrote: post #93
antimagic wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? No! I don't know about you, but I would have a silly grin on my face too if I actually got to see this experiment live - I mean it's such a classic result - we've all been told that this is what would happen, but very few of us actually get to see it. It's like the experience of seeing the moons of Jupiter the first time that you look at it through a telescope - yes, you know the moons are there, you've even se…

I find this perplexing. Obviously few of us would get to see a feather drop due to the lack of a huge vacuum chamber, but you can derive almost as much experimental entertainment by dropping, say, a ping-pong ball and a similarly sized marble or ball bearing. Really, I think the slow-motion camera has much more educational value than the vacuum chamber (cool as that is). When I was in school and we'd debate such thin…

One of my science teachers demonstrated it in class with a vacuum glass tube containing a small feather and a small lead weight. I remember being equally amazed to see it. As pointed out, there is a difference between being told something and seeing it.

Re: The hammer-feather drop in the world’s biggest vacuum chamber [video]

#110

Post by mhartl »

paddyoloughlin wrote: post #17

I 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.

Not wanting to wait through the prologue, I skipped ahead in the video, where I searched in vain for the real-time drop. It's bizarre that they apparently didn't show it even once, especially since it can't have taken more than a few seconds (the chamber's height is 37.2 meters [1], so t_max = √(2h/g) = √(2×37.2/9.8) = 2.75 s).

[1]: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2819205/Testi...

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