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You are here: Home / Google+ Posts / Dropping Feathers vs. a Bowling Ball in a Vacuum

Dropping Feathers vs. a Bowling Ball in a Vacuum

November 6, 2014 by Paul Spoerry 14 Comments

Gravity in the World’s Biggest Vacuum Chamber. Physicist Brian Cox visits NASA’s Space Power Facility in Ohio to see what happens when a bowling ball and a feather are dropped together under the conditions of outer space.

As an aside, his book 'The Quantum Universe (And Why Anything That Can Happen, Does)' is a great read and worth checking out: http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0306819643/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Check this out on Google+

Filed Under: Google+ Posts Tagged With: Science, scienceIsAwesome

About Paul Spoerry

I’m a groovy cat who’s into technology, Eastern Thought, and house music. I’m a proud and dedicated father to the coolest little guy on the planet (seriously, I'm NOT biased). I’m fascinated by ninjas, the Internet, and anybody who can balance objects on their nose for long periods of time.

I have a utility belt full of programming languages and a database of all my knowledge on databases... I practice code fu. Oh, I've also done actual Kung Fu, and have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

I run. I meditate. I dance. I blog at PaulSpoerry.com, tweet @PaulSpoerry, and I'm here on Google+.

I'm currently work for IBM developing web enabled insurance applications for IBM and support and develop a non-profit called The LittleBigFund.

Comments

  1. Malcolm Oakley says

    November 6, 2014 at 3:15 pm

    That's a fascinating place for sure! Thanks for sharing.

  2. Dennis Brown says

    November 7, 2014 at 2:33 am

    Oh no! Firstly, what a great share – just the building itself was well worth the watch, thank you +Paul Spoerry

    Secondly, (spoiler alert!) to watch them dropping in the vacuum was gripping (ah, not giving it all away 😉 and thirdly, just loved the reactions of Brian Cox and the (much cleverer) people (than me) being gob-smacked by it, too!

    *But, and hence the oh no, come the end, I'm now left all confused – I don't know if they were really moving at all! Ahhhhh!

    h/t, +Malcolm Oakley for the +1 without which I wouldn't have seen it 🙂

  3. Malcolm Oakley says

    November 7, 2014 at 4:36 am

    +Dennis Brown – totally agree, Einstein's statement frazzled my brain! Is the sound of a tree falling really a sound if no one is there to hear it?

  4. Dennis Brown says

    November 7, 2014 at 8:30 am

    Oh +Malcolm Oakley​, please don't do that to me… Now I'm going to spend the afternoon pondering that one! I still struggle with the thought of a supersonicly (did I make that word up?) flying Concorde getting to me before I heard it or not hearing the sound of the rifle bullet that kills you!

  5. Paul Spoerry says

    November 7, 2014 at 7:36 pm

    I totally agree +Dennis Brown; these people KNEW what would happen. They knew it intellectually and yet to see it in person they were still tickled pink and full of the same level of wonder that I think I felt watching it!

  6. Dennis Brown says

    November 8, 2014 at 7:13 am

    Couldn't have put it better, +Paul Spoerry 🙂

  7. Mohamad Atta says

    November 8, 2014 at 9:07 pm

    Why the ball break the wood if it's drooped slowly?

  8. Dennis Brown says

    November 9, 2014 at 3:44 am

    I'll leave you to answer that one, +Paul Spoerry… 🙂

  9. motaz thwaib says

    November 10, 2014 at 2:37 am

    +Mohamad Atta i think gravity is still there but here we just eliminated the resistance

  10. IThinkWithMy Liver says

    November 10, 2014 at 2:43 pm

    This video was almost perfect, except for one rather major & annoying thing:
    show us the NON-slow motion video of the ball & feather falling at the same rate! GRrrrh!

  11. Paul Spoerry says

    November 10, 2014 at 8:55 pm

    LOL +Dennis Brown yeah I think that +motaz thwaib hit the nail on the head.

    +IThinkWithMy Liver That would have been a cool compare / contrast.

  12. ben says

    November 13, 2014 at 12:20 am

    +Mohamad Atta They weren't dropped slowly, they actually would have both been moving faster than usual due to the lack of air resistance (yes there'd be some on the bowling ball normally it would just be almost unnoticeable from that height) the reason they looked like they were falling slowly is because they were shot in slow motion. The reason the ball & feather dropped at the same rate was, while the bowling ball has more gravity acting upon it, it has more inertia, which means it's harder to get it moving, but also harder to get it to stop moving – this is why it broke the wood & the feather's didn't.

  13. Dennis Brown says

    November 13, 2014 at 3:36 am

    h/t +ben – for both the well-explained answer and for taking the time to do so 🙂

  14. Mohamad Atta says

    November 13, 2014 at 4:23 am

    +ben why I was asking that question. ..during show the man how was talking his hands moved normally in same time ball and feather dropped slowly. ..that means shot was not in slow motion. .thank you for your answer

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