AV Geeks 16mm Lunch 10-18-2024

hi everybody this is Skip elim and welcome to the avgeeks lunchtime streaming show where we watch old 16mm films and uh we're in the archive today but we're not really in the archive today we are at Dollywood hopefully riding a bunch of roller coasters or thrill rides um it's been a while I'm a big fan of roller coasters and so I'm excited to be paying more than $100 to do it man theme parks are so expensive now anyhow uh so this is a pre-recorded show and we got some stuff for you that's all related to gravity gravity so the first thing we're going to watch is something from the prelinger AR archive called simulation of two gyro gravity gradient uh attitude control system uh which is an amazing computer animated thing then we're going to watch a cornet film called gravity then we are going to watch Galileo's laws of falling bodies uh force of gravity and then we're going to wind it up with um we digitized a bunch of stuff for uh NASA for the internet internet archive and so this is a a episode of a show called 321 connect and it is um about microgravity and I've edited it down because it was 30 minutes but I've made it short and uh taken out the live classroom participation aspect of it but it's still pretty interesting and uh I think John Glenn's in it so uh and uh some really uh bad late '90s animation so um thanks so much for watching today I appreciate your eyeballs and I appreciate your comments I might try to check in I don't know well we don't know where we're going to be we don't know if I'm going to have uh access um phone access in the mountains but um regardless thanks for uh your support you can support us by hitting the thumbs up or the like button you can also support us with coffee by going to ko-fi / avgeeks or patreon.com avgeeks uh you can also go to um use the super thanks button in the YouTube comments that's another way to financially support us but just hitting that thumbs up every once in a while that's great for the algorithm the algorithm um yeah everybody have a great rest of your weekend or beginning of your weekend and we'll be back live provided I can drive down the Mountain uh on Monday and we'll see you soon everybody take care bye I that's is [Music] did you ever stop to wonder why it is that things seem to fall toward the Earth that's what Bob did one Saturday resting after a game of touch football and watching the Autumn Leaves drifting down from the trees almost everywhere you look you can see examples of the D downward pulling Force known as gravity gravity pulls children down the slide in the playground gravity pulls down on a ball all the time even though you can kick the ball high into the air gravity keeps pulling and brings the ball back down what is this thing called gravity it even holds Bob down and airplanes have to use power to stay in the air against Gra gra it Bob was wondering what would happen if there were no gravity and that's where I came in I know Bob I'm an engineer at the same plant as his dad so he asked me what I could tell him about why things seem to fall toward the Earth well I was on my way down to the plant I suggested Bob come along we'd see what we could work out together gravity is so common that many people don't even stop to think about it our bodies and things all around us are held to the Earth yet there is more to gravity than that I explained to Bob to appreciate gravity you must understand what Sir Isaac Newton meant when he formulated the law of gravitation as it sometimes expressed mutual attraction exists between all bodies those are big words for a big idea but gravity's mutual attraction between bodies is something like the magnetic attraction between two magnets each is attracted to the other that's what we mean when we say that the attraction is mutual and just as in magnetism where a larger heavier magnet can have a greater attraction or pull so in Gravity the heavier the bodies the greater the gravitational pull Bob could understand mutual attraction between magnets but was there any mutual attraction between him and that desk for instance well that attraction is very small but it does exist we Engineers know that it does because we've measured the attraction with delicate instruments you measure gravity's attraction every time you weigh something now the Earth has a mass billions of times as much as Bob so it attracts him with considerable Force we measure that Force to be0 lb and because my Mass is greater than Bob's 164 lb is the measure of the mutual attraction between me and the Earth how does this attraction of gravity affect our Solar system let's look at it in miniature suppose the Earth were the size of a grapefruit at the same scale the moon would be about the size of a golf ball and they would be about 10 ft apart nearly a mile away there would be another round object say that water tank about 36 ft in diameter representing the sun mutual attraction keeps these bodies in their places in the solar system why don't they come crashing into each other well it might happen if it were not for the fact that all heavenly bodies are traveling through space at tremendous speeds but the moon for instance doesn't go flying off in a straight line because of gravity's mutual attraction between the Earth Earth and the moon which we can represent by a 10t string centrifugal force tends to keep the moon going in a straight line but the force of gravity represented by the string pulls it in into a circular path or orbit for exactly the same reasons the Earth moves around the Sun in its own much larger orbit pulling the moon along with it Bob was worried about something if gravity's attraction is dependent on mass then does the little moon have less attaction than the sun I was pleased Bob was really trying to figure this thing out he was almost understanding Newton's law of gravitation gravity does depend directly on the masses involved but it's inversely proportional to the distance to the square of the distance if two objects are moved twice as far apart the pull of gravity is 1/4 so there's our sun almost 400 times farther from the earth than the moon it all made sense Bob said the greater the distance the less the attraction of gravity when you understand how the attraction of gravity falls off as the square of the distance you appreciate how spaceships May travel by rocket to the moon or to other planets I've been playing around figuring space travel and the pull of gravity works like this I told Bob say you're here at the surface of the Earth 4,000 mi from its Center that's the r I of the earth 4,000 Mi you weigh 120 lb that's normal here at the surface but you take off in a spaceship now you're out 4,000 M from the surface really 8,000 mi from the center of the Earth being twice as far from Earth's center cuts the pull of Earth's gravity to 1/4 he'd weigh only 30 lbs the attraction of gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance and up here you must use rocket force in Reverse to overcome the moon's gravity and prevent a crash I had some movies there of the first experimental rocket flights the force of the rocket motor overcomes the force of gravity and slowly lifts the ship but these early Rockets went only about 100 Mil up before they ran out of energy and gravity pulled them back to Earth so Bob had a better understanding of gravity the mutual attraction between bodies and then he said he'd always thought of down as this way but actually to a person at this point on the earth this way is done and to a person here this way is done this person is not upside down as long as you're on or near the Earth down is toward the center of the earth this gravity is attracting everything solid things liquids and even gases the air around every time you lift something you're working against the pull of gravity but we put gravity to work too we hoist coal into trucks and let gravity pull it down into our basement and in the furnace the coal heats the water for our radiators when the air around is warmed it expands becoming lighter than the cold air around it so gravity pulls the heavier cold air down forcing the warm air to circulate and heat the entire room and so it was that the Curiosity about leaves falling down from trees led to an understanding of gravity's mutual attraction between bodies and its importance to our solar system and to so many things on Earth for example Bob can figure out the part that the force of gravity plays in drinking through a straw can you [Music] gravitation draws all objects toward the Earth's center as long as the Earth is existed objects on the earth have been acted upon by gravity but laws that govern freely falling bodies suspended bodies like this pendulum or other Bodies in Motion were not discovered until the latter part of the 17th century Galileo often called the father of modern science is given credit for helping to develop these laws of motion according to Legend the Leaning Tower of Pisa was used by Galileo supposedly he dropped objects from the top of the tower and observed how fast they fell regardless of whether Galileo made these experiments we do know that he did research in the physical sciences here in this modern physical science laboratory we will recreate some of his experiments for example he dropped objects of different weight and sizes and compared their rates of fall we will make the same kind of comparison by using slow motion photography based on such observations Galileo concluded that all objects fall at the same rate of speed or acceleration regardless of size or weight objects that weigh very little such as this feather seem to be exceptions but Galileo believed that any differences in acceleration were the result of air resistance today we can prove that Galileo was right by using a glass tube from which the air has been removed in the vacuum that results the feather and a coin fall with identical acceleration here is the action repeated in slow motion another problem challenged Galileo he wanted wanted to describe the speed of a falling body at any instant freely falling bodies move so fast they are difficult to observe so Galileo devised an inclined plane much like this one to reduce or dilute the speed of fall Galileo used a water clock to time his experiments here a modern electric timer is used to click off the seconds as the object falls and this device releases the object such as the steel ball and simultaneously starts the timer the distance the ball rolls in each succeeding second varies depending upon the elevation of the plane now we will see the action in slow motion after 1 second the ball has traveled 10 cm in 2 seconds 40 cm in 3 seconds 90 cm in 4 seconds 160 cm and so on here are the experimental results using similar facts Galileo noticed that a relationship existed between the distance traveled and the time squared using our experiment as an example at the end of 1 second the ball has moved 10 cm at the end of 2 seconds it has rolled 10 cm * 4 or 10 * 2 seconds sared at the end of 3 seconds the distance is 10 * 3 seconds squared and at the end of 4 seconds 10 * 4 seconds sared as a formula s the distance equals 10 * the number of seconds squared expressed in terms of acceleration s = 12 the acceleration * the second squared this formula applies to all objects in motion such as the ball moving down the inclined plane for the special case where an object is falling freely instead of rolling the formula s = 12 a^2 becomes s = 12 GT ^2 where G is the acceleration due to the full force of gravity although the Tower of Pisa experiment so often associated with Galileo may never have actually taken place there is no doubt that Galileo deserves an honored place in the history of physical science science he was a Pioneer in experimental work and he developed formula to represent some of the basic laws of [Music] motion governs its motion what goes up must come down with an old saying man has unconsciously tried to sum up a basic force in his [Music] Universe this force is one of the most familiar things in the world yet nothing has puzzled scientists more despite all their study it is still a mystery it is known as [Music] gravitation man has long known how to use gravitation he has also learned recently to overcome it but he still asks the same kind of questions that he asked thousands of years ago what is gravitation why does it act the way it does man's wondering about such things has inspired many theories about the world around him ancient civilizations looked for order and Harmony throughout the cosmos according to the Egyptians the goddess of the heavens arched her body like a canopy over the Earth holding up the Stars the planets and the Sun and letting them Glide over her back once each day in one Greek Cosmos a large Earth was surrounded by concentric spheres which carried the moon the Sun the the other planets and the Stars around it every 24 [Music] hours within this universe four elements fell naturally in place Earth the heaviest at the bottom water not so heavy on top of it then air much lighter and then fire lightest of all high above everything weight was important in this Cosmos the Greeks were trying to deal with gravitation although they did not know that such a thing existed such a cosmos with the Earth at its Center appealed to an age whose philosophers believed man to be the center of all things this neat and logical Universe won Aristotle's approval which helped it remain in favor for nearly 2,000 years but in the 16th century the Aristotelian Cosmos was successfully challenged by the Polish astronomer C ericus who adopted another concept here the sun was at the center of things and the Earth merely one of several planets orbiting around it this universe was refined nearly a century later by the German astronomer Kepler who combined The cernic View with new observations and worked Outlaws describing rather simply the Motions of the planets Kepler found that each planet follows an elliptical path and travels faster when it is nearer the sun he also found a simple relationship between the period of a planet's Revolution and its distance from the Sun the period squared is proportional to the distance cubed with this formula Kepler without knowing it provided a clue to the sun's gravitational field meanwhile the Italian Galileo was studying the Motions of much nearer objects one morning in church his attention was caught by a swinging lamp although each swing was smaller than the one before it the time of each swing was the same Galileo wondered why in trying to solve problems like this he became one of the first to perform practical experiments with motions and forces and to understand what those experiments implied Galileo showed that the fall of all bodies toward Earth is independent of any other motion such as horizontal movement he also demonstrated that no matter what their size and weight all falling bodies gain speed at the same rate he concluded that force is necessary only to change the speed or direction of motion Galileo's findings LED ultimately to an explanation of the Motions of all massive objects on [Music] Earth it remained for the 17th century English genius Sir Isaac Newton to connect Galileo's experiment expent Kepler's equations and the universe of cernus Newton's view of the physical world gives us the basis for solving practically all our problems in Mechanics for example his own drawing showed that if a projectile were hurled at greater and greater speeds it would become a satellite Newton was the first to state that all motion whether of projectiles pendulums or planets is subject to the same kind of force acting under different circumstances in this Monumental work he set forth a universal principle based on his studies of motion Newton stated that each body of matter in the universe is attracted to every other body the greater the mass of a body the greater its attraction the greater the distance between bodies the less the attraction Newton's formula states that the attraction between bodies is proportional to the product of their masses divided by the square of the distance between them to this fundamental attraction Newton gave the name gravitation he also stated that every massive body is held together by self-gravity the attraction between each of its own particles of matter thus the history of any St star our sun for example came to be understood as a vast struggle between equal forces the fiery energy that tends to blow the mass apart and the gravitation that holds it [Music] together the balanced ordered Universe described by Newton reign supreme for more than two centuries and within this classical framework man began to make sense of more complex motion controlled by gravitation he learned how to make accurate predictions about the Motions of astronomical bodies these predictions in turn led to important discoveries for example from various observations astronomers calculated the orbit of the newly discovered planet Uranus taking into account the location and gravitational influence of other known planets but very soon Uranus was seen to wander slightly from its expected path studying the direction amount and time of the planet's deviation astronomers concluded that another body in space must be attracting Uranus and they were right in 1846 the body was discovered as predicted identified as a planet and given the name Neptune since then Newton's law has helped astronomer understand the structure of galaxies and other great star systems how they are held together and how the material in them is distributed moreover with the development of precise instruments and methods of measuring gravity man has become able to map the distribution of Mass on his own planet in 1798 the English scientist Henry Cavendish using equipment built like this model found a way to measure the gravitational attraction between known masses a known distance apart the amount of Attraction exerted by the larger masses on the smaller ones at the end of the torsion balance can be measured by the degree of twist in the suspension fiber thus once man learned that a specific mass exerts a specific amount of Attraction he could calculate the amount of mass in any object by the amount of its attraction in the last century man has measured gravitational attraction all over the Earth and he has used the relation between mass and attraction to interpret his measurements however on Earth these measurements are greatly affected by the fact that our planet is [Music] rotating first of all the Earth's spin carries an object along much faster at the equator than near the poles therefore the pole of gravity is counteracted more at the equator and the object there weighs less than an identical object near one of the poles furthermore rotation causes the equatorial Zone to bulge and the polar regions to flatten this brings objects near the poles closer to the earth center and places objects at the equator farther away the difference in weight between the two identical objects is thus even [Music] greater for example if on a spring scale at the Panama Canal you weigh 193 lb in Greenland even without the extra weight of the boots you will weigh a pound more and the Bob of a clock pendulum adjusted to keep perfect time at the poles will weigh less at the equator and swing more slowly there thus the clock will lose about 10 seconds an hour about a day a year since the period of a pendulum swing depends on gravity the pendulum is a good instrument for measuring gravitational acceleration this is usually done by measuring the total elapse time of a large number of swings in this way the absolute value of gravity has been found at stations throughout the world such as Teddington England the figure shown here is derived from the length of a pendulum and the average time taken by its [Music] swings to get such a reliable measurement the Earth's magnetic field must be nullified the pendulum must SW bring in a vacuum chamber free of air resistance moisture and temperature changes that would affect its [Music] motion at a number of stations throughout the world including the National Bureau of standards in Washington scientists are measuring the acceleration of gravity directly a rod is designed to fall free in a vacuum inside a tube spaced holes in the rod act like a camera shutter allowing light to pass to a recording device when the apparatus is dropped the time between flashes is measured to the nearest 10 millionth of a second providing a direct measure of acceleration thus modern technology refines Galileo's Orin original experiment using the pendulum stations as reference points scientists measure gravitational variations all over the world moreover in the last few decades they have been able to take measurements in the vast oceans covering nearly 3/4 of our planet measuring gravity at Sea is more difficult than on land the acceleration of gravity must be clearly differentiated from the Motions of the vessel this problem was solved in the 1920s by the development of an instrument which used the classical pendulum in a new way identical pendulums swing in opposite directions on a supporting frame the frame is hung on gimbals to reduce the influence of the vessel's role the pendulums are swung for about half an hour and the vessel's accelerations are averaged out the average acceleration acting on the pendulums is the local value of gravity under the best conditions error and measuring can be reduced to three or four parts in a million gravity can now be measured more quickly and economically from surface ships due to recent advances in instrumentation this gravity meter is hung on gimbals which keep it relatively unaffected by surface rolling and pitching other gravity meters are used to make measurements from aircraft and on land many of them are portable all operate on the same basic principle gravitation exerts a pull on a weighted arm suspended on a spring the arm shown here on a different Mount is connected to a pointer a measurement is made by adjusting the pointer to Z Z how far the knob has to be turned at each location indicates the difference in gravitational pull between that location and the previous one the spring Balan gravity meter is so sensitive that it will measure the difference in pull between two adjacent positions even if one of them is only a few feet closer to the Center of the Earth during the international geophysical year the measurement of gravity was increasingly standardized and extended all over the earth a worldwide network of gravity basis was developed in collecting gravity measurements around the world scientists often stop only long enough to take the local reading before proceeding to the next Point sometimes the gravity meter is sent by itself to be met and used by someone stationed at each place along with gravity whether measured on land at sea or from aircraft altitude must be noted so that the gravity reading May later be adjusted to the sea level standard at Gravity Research centers such as the University of Wisconsin data are gathered from all parts of the world the traverses and findings of the field parties are plotted and compared traverses are sometimes made on foot and readings taken very close together in this way a detailed gravity portrait of large areas is built up [Music] taken from notes made in the field the exact position of each station is used to correct the actual reading for the differences in the Earth's gravity field at different latitudes Corrections are also made for the tital pull of the moon or temperature and for possible drift of the gravity meter on this geological map showing Rock distribution ution corrected gravity readings are plotted in the form of contour lines indicating local excesses or deficiencies in gravitational pull the gravitational pattern when compared with the geological pattern provides geodesists and seismologists with important Clues to the structure of the Earth's crust although gravity measurements vary from place to place the large visible masses do not cause as great A variation as might be expected this can be explained by the way the Earth's hard crust floats on the plastic metal underneath in a normal region where the land is not very high the crust is generally about 20 mi thick and only a small fraction of it floats above sea level in a mountainous region the crust sinks deeper into the matle to support the extra weight of the mountains this deep projection is known as a mountain route on the other hand in the oceans only a thin crust is needed to support the water which is less than half as heavy as rock in this ideal picture all these floating sections have about the same weight and mass therefore they would exert the same pull on a gravity meter this Equalization of masses is called isos y actually the Earth's crust departs from this ideal picture different sections have different weights and masses for example a mountain route may be missing and replaced by denser metal such a section will have a greater weight in Mass gravity meters will detect sections like this here buoyancy alone does not hold up the mountain the crust on both sides is strong enough to do much of the job on a larger scale gravity readings adjusted to measurements made at pendulum stations indicate slight lumps and Hollows in the earth's sea level figure which we call the goid thus a clearer picture of our planet's irregular shape is emerging most of the gravitational effects that man can now measure with his gravity meters orig in the Earth but beyond these effects there is a dramatic phenomenon caused by our nearest Neighbor In Space the moon and to a lesser extent by the sun this phenomenon is the great cycle of Tides [Music] one side of the earth is about 3% nearer the moon than the other side thus according to Newton's law masses on the near side are attracted by the moon about 6% more strongly than masses on the far side the waters on the near side are pulled out and gathered by the moon to form a high tide and since the solid earth as a whole is nearer the moon than the waters on the far side the Moon draws the Earth away from those Waters thus leaving another high tide the Earth rotates under the tidal humps and the continents and sea bottoms resist the flow of high water this friction carries the tidle humps out of line with the moon depending on the sun's position relative to the Moon tides caused by the sun pile up on the high tides caused by the moon or fill in the low tides the gravitational pull of Moon and Sun Also affects the Earth's crust and mantle while the solid earth is much less deformable than the oceans sensitive instruments have measured tides in the earth up to 8 in at the Equator this rise and fall provides information about the rigidity and strength of a crust during the international GE physical year measurements like these also helped us understand more about small shifts in the Earth's crust caused by the pole of the Moon and Sun ever since man started launching satellites and studying their orbits which are governed by the gravitational field around Earth he has been learning new details about his Planet shape as a whole studies of orbits have suggested that the gravitational field around our planet fits a slightly raised Arctic and a slightly flattened Antarctic man's conception of the way gravitation behaves has been formed almost entirely within the framework of the universe conceived three centuries ago by Sir Isaac Newton today as man gets ready to venture far beyond planet Earth Newton's Laws still apply to most of his physical existence even the Motions that he experienes in the strange state of zero gravity in this free fall everything happens the way it does in empty space far removed from massive bodies and their gravitation on the other hand to a man in a centrifuge everything happens the way it would near a massive body with tremendous gravitation here if a man's weight is increased 10 times we say he is subjected to 10 G's is this Force essentially the same as gravity and is a freef fall really the same as the absence of gravity classical physics said no Albert Einstein was the first to say yes this answer has led 20th century physicists through a series of logical steps to a New Concept of the universe gravitation is no longer thought of as a force exerted through empty space by one Mass on another instead it is regarded as the way a freely moving body takes the shortest path through space time a mass curves the space around it and measurements obey a curved line geometry the greater the mass the more extreme a gravitational field it creates the New Concept of gravitation still allows us to drop a ball build a bridge and fly a plane as we have done but where where we can study objects moving at speeds near that of light in the laboratory or out in boundless space we find the time stretches distances shrink and bodies become heavier it is difficult to grasp this universe we can only keep on observing measuring and studying gravitation along with other Cosmic forces today's scientists ask many questions does gravitation weaken with time or possibly grow stronger is gravitation different in different parts of the universe if tomorrow's scientists can answer questions like these man will have a far more profound understanding of the way this Force brings order on planet Earth and throughout the Universe [Music] la [Music] did you know that some of the sensations you experience in a roller coaster 200 ft above the ground are similar to Sensations experienced by astronauts some 200 miles above the Earth on today's connect we're going to look at the world of micro gravity it's something we feel every day and not just in theme parks [Music] [Music] hi I'm Van Hughes and I'm Shelley canr and we're here at Bush Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia welcome to connect the show that connects you to NASA into the world of mathematics and science on today's show we'll look at how microgravity works here on Earth and in space and we'll look at some of the benefits we get back here on Earth from experiments conducted in a microgravity environment now to help us explore the world of gravity and microgravity we've enlisted to help with some very special friends first we'll talk with Dr David Wright creator of the Bush Gardens physics fair in Williamsburg he'll explain how roller coasters simulate microgravity here on Earth then shell will talk with an expert who felt the effects of microgravity in space America's first astronaut to circle the Earth Senator John Glenn that's right and then shortly we're going to take you to the connect Studio back at Nasa Langley what talk to two NASA scientists who are studying the effects of microgravity on fluids and protein crystals and later you'll be able to phone in questions or email them live to our studio and to our microgravity scientists Nancy Hall from NASA lewiis research center and Felicia Ying from Marshall space flight center and then finally we'll also see a class of students from the Williamsburg James City County and York County school districts in Virginia who have done an experiment related to our topic we'll share their data with you and then get you involved in the analysis of the data it's a great show we've got lined up for you well Shelly I'm set to find out how Sensations on a roller coaster are not too unlike those that astronauts feel when they're in space um so I guess we'll see you at the connect Studio hey sounds good but right now I'm going to ride one of those coasters see you there all right to see you well I wonder where Dr RI is he told me to meet him here in his lab man welcome to Bush Gardens Williamsburg the enchanted lab hi Dr Wright this isn't where roller coasters are created is it no van scientists and Engineers do that they spend lots of time using math and science to design rides like alpengeist the big bad wolf and one of my favorites The Lochness Monster oh The Lochness Monster that's the ride Shelly just went on it's really great what makes a roller coaster so much fun it doesn't take magic does it well van it has a lot to do with velocities banking ankles gravitational forces gravitational forces Professor explain the process of gravitational forces to Van to understand gravitational forces you have to understand the problems of gravity I'll begin with the story of a fellow named Galileo gravity is the attraction that holds us to the ground here on Earth the gravitational force we field we measure 1G in 1630 Italian scientist Galileo went to the Leaning Tower of Pisa in his hand he had a 1B ball and a 10 lb ball he dropped these balls at the same time from a great height and learned to the amazement of the people below the balls fell at the same rate how can this be one weighed one PB and the other weighed 10 lb yet both fell at the same rate Galileo showed that the pool on the objects was the same this pool we call gravity gravity now if a man and an apple were to drop from the same Tower the Apple would appear to float before his eyes because both are falling at the same rate this is called freef fall it simulates the effects of weightlessness you've seen footage of astronauts in the space shuttle haven't you well they're not floating what actually happens is that the space shuttle the astronauts and everything in it is in a continuous state of Freefall because NASA shoots a rocket with astronauts and experiments to Heights greater than a leaning tower of hea Galileo's experiment is replicated for longer durations at this point the spacecraft orbits the earth unfortunately for this man from the tower he didn't get on a rocket ship in time thanks Professor you're welcome let me explain microgravity van have a seat okay microgravity means small levels of gravity or low gravity we can simulate a number of everyday experiences you feel micro gravity on a playground swing when it gets to the top you feel it when an elevator drops and you feel it on a dropping roller coaster and you get that feeling that your stomach is rising up into your thrat I think I'm feeling it right now oh I left the microgravity chair on then come on down van the point is you don't need magic to experience the effects of my microgravity you feel it all around you you can study it in lab situations that's right Nasa uses several unique Laboratories to create microgravity conditions here on Earth some NASA researchers use freef fall here on Earth by placing experiments into containers and dropping the container down a shoe to a cushioned Landing these are called drop Towers another laboratory is a flying one by flying aircraft in a careful series of roller coaster-like arcs brief periods of microgravity can be produced usually about a quarter minute to a whole minute can be sustained one final tool used by NASA are sounding Rockets which Arc high above the Earth before parachuting down to be recovered but all of these Laboratories share a common problem after a few seconds or minutes of low gravity Earth gets in the way and freef fall stops right Professor right and where is the place where Free Fall is constant space right well that's where we're going next and one person who has been in space and is preparing to go up again is America's first astronaut to circle the Earth Senator John Glenn he'll tell us some of the benefits microgravity research has on space and for us on Earth just a few days ago Shelly talked with Senator Glenn let's see what they have to say today I have the distinct pleasure to talk with the first American to orbit Earth and to experience firsthand microgravity in space joining the connect program is none other than test pilot astronaut not an American hero Senator John Glenn thank you glad to be with you thank you thank you glad to have you we appreciate your time that you can help our our viewers learn a little bit more about microgravity research good could you share with us maybe some of the areas of research that are going on well there are lots of things go on you know they they're doing uh uh research with how a match Burns or what happens with combustion in other words a burning process uh does the fire just collect in a in a a uh ball around whatever is burning instead of going up like a candle flame uh that's different in space and so you learn a lot about combustion from that uh we do research with the protein crystals growth protein crystals with your tiny little crystals uh that can be used for new kinds of research on on medicines uh these crystals can grow larger and more pure in space than they do here on Earth now you can't do that in 25 or 30 seconds in an airplane so you have to be up there in space and run research in that area uh they're doing research in areas like uh tissue culture now tissue culture means you're trying to grow tissue like body tissue and if you do that in a laboratory like experimenting with the cancer cells for instance they'll grow flat as a as a tissue growth occurs in a bottom of a glass dish in a laboratory but in space you can grow them in the natural shape uh that they would have inside the human body and so have a better chance to learn how to treat them so those are things we'll all be looking into and you can't do those things uh in an airplane short term you have to be up there in a spacecraft for longer term is there a message you'd like to leave with this younger generation oh there indeed there is you know I think the thing I hope they're very curious and I hope they keep that same kind of curiosity uh in school and learn more because that's what will enable them then to take the experiences that I and others have had uh and do some of these things themselves I hope every young person that's watching this program has a chance to go up someday and do some of this kind of research themselves Well you certainly are a great example to them and a role model and Senator I thank you for your time and I'm sure that I will speak on behalf of all our viewers in wishing you the very best on your mission in October and the future that you're going to bring to biomedical research God speed Senator we really looking forward to it thank you much thanks Shel we want to acknowledge Bush Gardens Williamsburg and Dr David Wright for letting us experience microgravity firsthand thanks Dr Wright my pleasure and to the audience the next time you go on a roller coaster try to find the number of times you'll experience microgravity and remember Math and Science make it happen not magic connect with us next time we connect you to math