Which falls faster, a feather or bowling ball?

[LiberalArkie]

NASA's space power facility is used to test the conditions of space while still on Earth by sucking many many tons of air out of the whole facility. Remember that feather-and-bowling ball trick from middle school? It actually works here.

[yuiyoshida]

1. AS my friend would say...

"Gravity Sucks!"

[longship]

2. A brilliant little video with an awesome, incredible tag line.

And as always, Brian Cox delivers some really provocative ideas. And, as usual, Einstein got it right.

R&K

[Callmecrazy]

10. Gravity experiments were Gallileo's gig...

Not Einstein.

[longship]

13. But Newton was the first to formulate gravity.

And Einstein refined it with general relativity, you know, four dimensional space-time. Mass tells space how to warp; the warp of space tells objects how to move.

So, yup. Although it was Galileo who did those first gravity experiments, it was Newton, and finally Einstein who solved the problem of how to calculate how gravity works.

[Callmecrazy]

14. Okay. Good explanation.

[longship]

15. Thanks.

I guess that physics degree did me some good.

[Callmecrazy]

16. Then you know that Einstein followed up...

on the work of James Maxwell and his equations.
I'm of the opinion that all the great scientists throughout history have merely expounded on the works of their predecessors. Galileo to Newton to Einstein. Faraday to Maxwell to Tesla. etc.

[longship]

17. Yup, as Newton wrote, "Standing on the shoulders of giants." nt

[Callmecrazy]

18. Yup, there you go.

[hunter]

21. James Clerk Maxwell built the foundations of modern technology.

He's #1 on my list of physicists school age kids should know, ahead of Newton or Einstein.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell

[Callmecrazy]

22. I would agree...

He first described electromagnetism as a wave function.
I would also put Michael Faraday up there. An apprentice bookbinder with only an elementary education, he devised the first electric motor. When asked by TPTB about what he could do with his invention he stated," I don't know but I'm sure you'll find a way to tax it."

[sarge43]

3. To quote a certan science officer, "Fascinating."

Thanks for posting.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. That room really sucks.

[Hissyspit]

5. No, nothing sucks.

[georut]

6. Apollo 15

Dave Scott did the same experiment on the moon with a hammer and feather in 1971 on Apollo 15

[riqster]

7. Beat me to it!

Also, Shepard hit a golf ball on the moon. Rigged a sample collector with a club head. It went a looooooong way.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. "Miles and miles and miles"

[MrNJ]

9. I was hoping to hear "oops, we left Rand Paul in the room"

[Rozlee]

11. "...with Ted Cruz, an hour ago."

They're OK, though! The hot air they're so full of was able to be recirculated in them and kept them alive until the chamber was opened. They've been considerably weakened however, so any virgins in the vicinity should run for the hills, lest they be sacrificed.

[vrp]

12. That was...

seriously cool.

[jtuck004]

19. Don't need a vacuum. Just duct tape the feathers to the bowling ball. Problem solved.

You are welcome.

On edit, and after reading the above - I don't know that there was a Cruz or Rand Paul when these experiments were conceived, but given the amt of hot inside either of those there might well be a difference between taping them to a bowling ball and dropping it, vs taping on a feather. Further research is needed.

[progree]

20. "Removed 30 tons of air from the chamber, leaving only about 2 grams" - Wow!

Let's see, 1 ton = 907,185 grams, so 30 tons = 27.2 million grams
2 grams / 27.2 million grams = 1 / 13.6 million = 0.000,000,073 = 0.000,007,3 %
whatever