I did not know that! Thank you for putting an urban myth to rest in my noggin.

In reply to this comment by mauz15:
>> ^raverman:
This reminds me of the millions of dollars NASA spent trying to perfect a pressurized pen that would write in zero gravity on space missions.
The Russians used a pencil.


False. Both the americans and the soviets initially used pencils, but it is dangerous if a piece of graphite broke and floated around inadvertently. It could affect instruments, get into your eyes, etc. Also, a free oxygen environment makes the wood of the pencil and probably also the graphite more prone to burn or combust.

Good analogy on seeking simple solutions to a problem, but completely made up and incorrect.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Pen#Uses_in_the_U.S._and_Russian_space_programs

>> ^raverman:
This reminds me of the millions of dollars NASA spent trying to perfect a pressurized pen that would write in zero gravity on space missions.
The Russians used a pencil.


False. Both the americans and the soviets initially used pencils, but it is dangerous if a piece of graphite broke and floated around inadvertently. It could affect instruments, get into your eyes, etc. Also, a free oxygen environment makes the wood of the pencil and probably also the graphite more prone to burn or combust.

Good analogy on seeking simple solutions to a problem, but completely made up and incorrect.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-nasa-spen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Pen#Uses_in_the_U.S._and_Russian_space_programs

>> ^raverman:
This reminds me of the millions of dollars NASA spent trying to perfect a pressurized pen that would write in zero gravity on space missions.
The Russians used a pencil.


I would also like to add I actually used a couple of those pens in the Navy. They hardly work for shit. Maybe you have to be in zero g for them to work. Bring on the pencil.

This reminds me of the millions of dollars NASA spent trying to perfect a pressurized pen that would write in zero gravity on space missions.

The Russians used a pencil.

Sorry but it's a dupe:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Bursting-balloons-in-zero-gravity

Typos in title. It should be: "Water balloons popped in zero gravity."

>> ^blankfist:
Afterward, they all went into the cockpit and had sex with each other. Why? I do not know why. They just did. It's science.


Yeah, zero gravity does that to ya.

>> ^Ghostly:
Can anyone tell me what aircraft this is? Or anything else about what's going on here. The floor looks pretty level and I wouldn't have thought a winged aircraft could accelerate downward that fast unless it was in real trouble or steeply angled nose down. (I'm not calling fake I just want to know more).


Reason they do it is to avoid enemy fire I think.

Clip of a so called "corkscrew landing" into Baghdad international here:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Corkscrewing-into-Baghdad-International-Airport

Not sure it is the same thing though.

>> ^Hellian:
It's all fun and games until someone looses an eye!


Then it's just games.

When airplanes simulate zero G's the crafts themselves do not have to be falling down vertically, they just have to be in a freefall trajectory, like the trajectory of a cannonball. This means the zero gravity environment can actually start while the plane is still flying upwards.
For low gravity they just stay slightly above the freefall trajectory.

>> ^NetRunner:
Winged aircraft can definitely dive fast enough to make you feel weightless (free fall), though you'll want a good pilot if you're going to do it.

The thing that confused me is that this isn't zero-g, merely reduced g's, and the forces still acting on the people relative to the plane seemed to be directed straight towards the floor, since they can both stand perpendicular to the floor and jump on the spot. Where as I thought in a steep dive if they jumped they would float towards the tail of the plane, but I must be thinking about the forces all wrong.

>> ^Ghostly:
Can anyone tell me what aircraft this is? Or anything else about what's going on here. The floor looks pretty level and I wouldn't have thought a winged aircraft could accelerate downward that fast unless it was in real trouble or steeply angled nose down. (I'm not calling fake I just want to know more).


I don't know about the type of aircraft, but I'd imagine it's a pretty ordinary military cargo plane of some sort. Winged aircraft can definitely dive fast enough to make you feel weightless (free fall), though you'll want a good pilot if you're going to do it.

In this case, they're making a rapid descent to land in Baghdad. I didn't realize they did them so steep they'd get the free-fall effect, but it makes sense.

NASA sports a plane explicitly for this purpose. Stephen Hawking even tried it.

*spacy

The interesting thing about what happens when I read Hawking is that I hear a british accent in my head as the narrator.

Fate weaved a cruel end for this brilliant man; when I saw him floating in "zero gravity" and witnessed the expressions on his face I could amost feel the supreme elation that he himself was experiencing.

I completely concur with him on the notion that if we, as a species, want to live for a very long time, we better learn how to live beyond this solitary clump of rock and metal we call home.

>> ^Zeph:
> Water is such an astonishing molecule.

i've always been amazed that it's one of the very few things that's heavier as a liquid, than a solid. and that life might not have been possible, were that not true.

since, as far as we know so far, water is probably one of the few necessities for life, anywhere.

asimov had a bunch of good stuff about this, in short-story collections like The Left Hand of the Electron and The Relativity of Wrong that i grew up reading.

>> ^pierrekrahn:
> science

already was. (science, spacy, geek)
but i think i know the reason why you may have seen it otherwise, momentarily:
http://www.videosift.com/talk/Wonkiness

Damn. It's true that everything you write on the internet is there forever!

In reply to this comment by Krupo:
>> ^blankfist:
>> ^schmawy:
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/5853/lowbrowndispicablezz4.jpg

Yes. I have my own category. It's that of a serious cat who posts like an adolescent.
vagina.


That image is absolutely hilarious.

Straight the Controversies playlist this one goes. Along with other gems like the the Catholic High School Girls, Iranians, and the 0 G cat.