ten-nine go for main engine start we
have main engine start four three two
one zero and liftoff liftoff of the
space shuttle and it has cleared the
tower
hello and welcome aboard the space
shuttle Endeavour
for we're orbiting almost 300 kilometers
above the earth our primary mission on
this flight was to deploy a tracking and
data relay satellite or TDRs feeders for
short and when it becomes operational it
will relay communications between
orbiting spacecraft and tracking
stations on the ground a few days ago we
sent the satellite on its way
but deploying tigress wasn't our only
mission on this flight two of our crew
members put on the protective Evo suits
and went outside the orbiter on an
important space law science experiments
to conduct but for one of our
experiments we brought along some toys
each of these toys work because of
important scientific and mathematical
principles principles that we often take
for granted on the ground that means
that everything around if you don't
understand microgravity your teacher can
help you out but for now we need you to
help us with these experiments we want
to find out if the toys act differently
in space than they do on earth but first
we have to know how they work on earth
this is where we need your help we want
you to experiment the same kinds of toys
we have here on the shuttle then when
you become experts with them try to
predict how they will act in
microgravity after you've made your
predictions what do we do with the toy
and see if you were right
remember this is a team effort and we're
counting on you to make our experiment a
success in this scene here I'm trying to
get the rat to flip on my hand but as
you can see what happens instead is that
his legs push against my hand and he
spins up and away now in the next scene
what I did was tape his feet to a book
now the book is so much more massive
than the rat that when the rat pushes on
it with his feet the book turns only
very slowly and the rat because he's
taped cannot jump up and away like he
did with my hand
watch what happens when the suction cup
releases now see the spring jumper takes
off we'll watch it again and boy look
how fast that travels across this the
big question with this scene is will the
Frog swim as well in air as he does in
water well if you watch the picture here
you'll notice that no he does not
I try all different ways of getting that
frog to swim in a straight line but
because the air is much less dense than
water I can't get him to do it so the
Frog just flops around
we'll take a look at the submarine here
and I'll let it go and you can see that
as it turns through the air both the
propeller and the submarine turn instead
of in the water where only the propeller
turns now I'll take a look at what
happens if I hold on to the propeller
and you can see that the submarine turns
around it both go and it takes off one
more time this time I've attached small
pieces of paper on to the propeller to
make the propeller larger and we'll see
what happens when we let this go I'll
move back so we can get a really takes
off we've taped a pen on to the end of
the submarine propeller to see what
would happen and if the submarine would
change the way it moved well it turns
out that it did as you can tell it flops
around quite a bit more we had a harder
time keeping it under control let's look
at the swimming fish now this fish swims
real well in water but watch what's
happening now
he's really struggling and not getting
anywhere just sort of floating around
really doesn't swim very well in air
well try it one more time whoops I think
I had a little rotation and he's turning
around just sort of flopping around not
really getting anywhere it's trying to
swim through air one of the things you
can do to help the fish swim better in
air is to impress the size of the fin it
also turns out that releasing the fish
very gently has an impact on which
direction the fish will swim I finally
got it right in this scene here and you
see the fish swimming forward
we'll look at the flapping bird in
microgravity and you can see what
happens here just flies around in
circles it doesn't seem to have any
direction of travel let's look at it
again in slow motion just goes around
doesn't go straight as it does on the
earth in one gravity and it looks like
it's turning around the wings now just
soar it without the wings flapping and
it soars across the mid-deck
I tried throwing this paper maple seeds
several different ways you can see it
didn't go very well when I threw it
holding on to the wing now I held on to
the bottom and threw it and it turned
just a little bit I finally got the hang
of it you can see a turning now very
much the same as it does on earth
I'm throwing the paper boomerang and
we'll see what happens
goes into the side of the wall if there
had been more room I think the paper
boomerang would have come back now this
time I threw it and flipped it with a
lot of rotation but not much forward
velocity and it just keeps going
straight boy that thing shot up like a
rocket and that caught me by surprise I
didn't expect that in this microgravity
environment that it would go up to that
quickly even in slow motion it comes off
and hits me in the chest even before I
can react here I have a single graviton
that's floating free in the cabin and
it's spinning you can see it wants to
spin about the wheel inside as well but
I'm trying to get it to tip over and I
can bump it on the sides on the top on
the bottom and I can't make it tip over
it's stable about the axis I let it go
in which is the spin axis up and down
this is the same configuration I've got
one spinning graviton here and I've
oriented it so the spin axis is pointing
at the camera again I'm just bumping it
on the sides and the top and the bottom
and I cannot get at the tip it's stable
about the axis I let it go in
this should be a graphic demonstration
of a spinning and Anan spinning graviton
you see the spinning graviton stays
stable while the other one tends to
tumble end over end because it has no
stable spin axis I'll do this one more
time the one that's not spinning just
tumbles free well the other one
maintains the orientation I let it go in
okay here I have two spinning gravitons
and they're both stable as they spin you
can see this time because they're both
stable they don't tumble either one of
them as you might expect here I have a
curious combination of two gravitons
that are attached together on a wiffle
ball and I have them both spinning in
the same direction so I would think I
would have thought they'd be very stable
in this configuration but because they
weren't perfectly aligned with each
other they got out of hand
WAM came apart and really gave me a
surprise let's take a look at that in
slow motion you can see how the
misalignment causes them to break apart
now this time I took those two gravitons
and I rotated them in opposite
directions from each other and because
their angular momentum vectors are in
opposite directions their stability axes
cancel each other so I'd expect to be
able to let this go and just have it
tumble now obviously I can't make them
both spin exactly the same speed so the
one of them that's gonna have a little
bit of stability but you can see I can
bump this stack and I can make it wobble
around a little bit as I bump it here
you see it will wobble some it has some
tendency for stability but not as much
as a single graviton would have floating
on its own I can make it wobble pretty
wide end over end so having two of them
spinning opposite directions cancelled
each other
now we're getting complicated I have
three gravitons all hooked to the same
wiffleball orthogonal to each other
that is their alignment is 90 degrees to
each other and I'm going to spin them
all in the same direction with reference
to their attachment to the wiffle ball
as I do this you would expect that the
angular momentum vectors of each of the
gravitons would add up to a single
vector which would be right between all
three so as I let this go and it tends
to rotate the only access that it will
rotate around is an axis that you can
see if you put a pencil between all
three of the gravitons it's rotating
about that axis that's equidistance from
all three of them now as it continues to
spin up by the natural character of the
friction in the gravitons it eventually
spins up so fast it comes apart
here's the same combination again I have
three gravitons mounted orthogonal II to
the wiffle ball and I'm going to spin
them all up in the same direction and
before I spin them up you can see how
they tumble end-over-end there is no
stability there because none of them are
rotating as I spin all three of them up
initially when I let them go you'll see
them begin to rotate around that same
axis that's right between all three but
one of the gravitons comes off and look
what happens to the remaining two as
that bottom graviton came off the
remaining two gravitons now are rotating
around an axis right between the two of
them again I was here's an experiment
that's a good demonstration of how a non
spinning graviton behaves just like a
ball on the end of a string I can change
the acts of a rotation just like you
could with anything attached to a string
here on earth
but once I spin this graviton up look
how it maintains that stability around
its rotation axis I can spin it around
and around and it wants to stay in an
orientation so that the spin axis is
parallel to the axis of rotation that
I'm holding the string in now look how I
change the orientation and eventually
the graviton ended up changing the
orientation of its rotation so it
matched the rotation axis of the string
very interesting change in the way the
graviton behaved
eventually I'll take it back to a
horizontal rotation so the rotation axis
of the string is vertical and you'll see
the graviton again orient itself so it's
been axis this vertical to match the
rotation I'm making with the string this
rattle back is a very curious device
here on the ground because if you rotate
it on a table it will eventually turn
around and spin the opposite direction
what you're seeing here are three
sequences of me spinning it around each
of its axis I spend it end over end with
the fixed side horizontal and then end
over in with the thick side vertical and
then in the last sequence I spin it
around its longest accident and you just
see it spins in no case did it ever turn
around and do the peculiar things it
does on a table
I was playing with the clacker balls one
afternoon on the shuttle and I had let
them go and they drifted apart and they
did this funny motion so what I tried to
do was get that funny motion to repeat
itself I experimented a little bit I
tried various different actions by
spinning them in one direction or the
other I wound up taping the clackers so
they stood apart and then I flipped them
well first end over end and that didn't
seem to repeat the motion that I
accidentally had discovered and then
spinning it around along the axis of the
handle produced the flipping motion that
you see here and that was quite
remarkable as it spun around there was a
little bit of imbalance and it seemed to
flip end over end which was unexpected
when I first took them into space
before flight I had to practice with the
clacker balls a bit since I had never
played with them before I became quite
proficient in using the clacker balls in
this fashion however while I was able to
get one ball to displace the other on
the ground I was never able to get the
clacker balls to do this in space it was
more difficult to produce this motion
with the balls in this orientation
relative to my body
in this next orientation it was a little
bit easier to get them to even come
close to displacing one another but I
was never really successful I believe it
was easier here because of the
orientation of my arm relative to my
body made it just a bit easier in
getting the balls to behave as I wanted
them to
on earth gravity produced just enough
drag on the stationary ball by weighing
it down just enough so that you could
produce the desired motion that is have
one sit still and the other one spin
around and hit it and then it's staying
still than the other one continuing the
motion
this experiment is the demonstration of
the concept of momentum the racquetball
has less mass than the pool ball and as
a result after a collision it will
always travel faster than the pool ball
even if I throw the pool ball at the
racquet ball here you'll notice it does
move faster because it does have less
mass now if I tape the two of them
together and again hit the racquet ball
with another pool ball you'll see it
curves around the pool ball in his final
demonstration I hit the two pool balls
and because the racquet ball has not
been hit it just goes along for the ride
this fallen Cup was one of the more
difficult toys I demonstrated on the
flight you can see that the ball just
won't stay in the cup as it does on
earth of course on earth we have gravity
holding the ball in the cup but in this
microgravity environment when I put the
ball in the cup and then push to hold it
I've actually pushed the ball away so I
never could get the ball to stay inside
the cup we'll try again you can see I
just push on the ball and that pushes
the ball out
in this scene I try to throw this
ping-pong ball the old-fashioned way but
it doesn't curve down toward the target
like I would expect on earth so I have
to change my throwing style I throw it
straight at the target without any twist
at all and then I attempt to throw
another ball with some twist to see if
it changes the direction of the ball as
it goes to the target let me try this
again straight with no spin oops now one
thing you'll have to remember is that
the velcro of the ball does have to
touch the target let me try this again
there we go and then I'll throw it one
more time with some spin to see if the
trajectory toward the target curves
looks to me like it did a little bit now
in this scene I take the target off of
the lockers so that it's free-floating
and this is a good demonstration of how
one object will react when you hit it
with another object in space now it's
floating around in part because of the
way that the first ball hit it so I'll
throw another ball to try to change the
direction of the floating I got it to
work
horseshoes doesn't played the same way
in space as it is on earth here I try to
throw a shoe the old-fashioned way and
as you can see that without the effect
of gravity this shoe just bounces off I
try it one more time
just to demonstrate the point and then I
decide I'm going to change my technique
instead of throwing the shoe right at
the pole I'm going to use a spinning
motion to see if I can catch the pole
and in fact that's exactly what happens
at this point the shoe is pretty stable
in a spinning motion around the pole and
in fact this ended up spinning for a
total of about five minutes without the
effect of gravity it doesn't slow down
and settle at the bottom of the pole in
this demonstration I take the horseshoe
pole off of the locker and let it free
float will I throw the shoes at it that
didn't work too well
in this demonstration I decide I'm going
to throw a horseshoe at the pole in
three different places to see how the
pole reacts in the first demonstration I
throw it as low as I can to the base and
as you can see there isn't much spinning
motion of the pole itself as it reacts
from having the shoe thrown against it
I'm gonna try a different technique how
about the middle okay I begin to see the
pole turn as it reacts to the shoe being
thrown at it and it floats away one last
try by throwing this horseshoe at the
tip of the pole to see if I can get it
to turn even more as it free floats away
from me
certainly seems to
basketball is a sport that's near and
dear to my heart here on earth and I was
very interested in seeing how basketball
would be different in space as you can
see I started out with a standard free
throw type shot and the ball just caroms
off in a funny direction not anywhere
close to what you would expect from
shooting the same shot here on earth so
I keep changing the angle from which I'm
shooting and I'm finding that it is
pretty darn tough to make a shot in
space finally I look at it and and I
think that the only way to get the ball
in the hoop is either to come up real
close and slam it through or to try to
bounce it off the ceiling that's the
only angle that seems to work and note
that the ball stops in the in the basket
it doesn't get pulled all the way
through the next thing we tried was
attaching the hoop to a free-floating
book
you can see that every time I hit the
book which is now the backboard with the
very lightweight basketball I can
actually make the book and the hoop
start spinning well that makes life
difficult when you're trying to make a
basket up there and I ended up coming up
with a very simple approach just hold
the book steady otherwise it becomes
very difficult to make a shot with a
free-floating basket and backboard one
of the things that's always impressed me
here on earth was the ability of the
professional basketball players to spin
around and make these really neat moves
well I was trying some of that in space
you can see it's pretty difficult it's
hard to control your body up there I
finally managed after a while after a
number of tries to figure out a way to
go head over heels and accomplish a slam
dunk this is my entry into the NBA slam
dunk contest for next year
now I know on earth you think this toy
works very well but in space we couldn't
get it to work at all we had this thing
floating around but without the effect
of gravity it just doesn't work the same
way now I took this toy looked at it for
a number of minutes and tried to figure
out what in the world do I do that this
thing up here it took me a while to
finally come up with something that
appeared to be unique in space about
this toy watch when I close and open up
the Jacob's Ladder every time I did this
the ladder would turn into a different
configuration it was completely random
and we the astronauts couldn't ever
really predict what would happen when we
pulled apart Jacob's Ladder to this day
it still seems a mystery
Here I am trying to produce standing
compressional waves by holding one end
still and moving the other end in and
out the result had some transverse
motion to it because my hand also had
some up-and-down motion in the next
sequence I tried to produce
compressional waves by moving my hand in
and out a bit faster then I tried to
produce the same type of wave by moving
both ends next I tried to stretch the
wave out and then I transition to
producing transverse waves first slowly
and then with a higher frequency and
amplitude
these magnetic rings are really
interesting I've got them arranged on
this plastic rod so that the poles of
the magnets are opposite to each other
and they repel or push away you can see
when I release the Rings they spring out
equally along the plastic rod and it
doesn't matter whether I hold the rod up
or whether I hold it down because in
this microgravity environment there is
no up-and-down they spread out equally
along the plastic rod and push away from
each other
now I'm gonna rotate the plastic rod
very slowly we'll see what happens the
rod is rotating so slowly that the
magnetic force still keeps the Rings
pushed away from each other and the
spacing is about equal about what it was
before
now I'll rotate the rod faster now see
what happens now the rotational force
has overcome the magnetic force and the
Rings are pushed together
the magnetic marbles were a lot of fun
to play with what we were looking at
initially was how far apart can we hold
two marbles and have them still be
attracted to each other the first time
we did it we had the opposite poles
facing each other so they would be most
attracting the second time we tried
about the same distance apart only with
the like pole facing each other and sure
enough they attracted there as well
this time the marbles were just a little
bit too far apart and they didn't
attract
I put them closer together but I started
the one on the right in your screen with
a little bit of motion and that motion
was just enough to overcome the
attractive force so they did not come
together
now I'm looking at the influence of one
marble on the other without touching it
seeing how close I can come with one
marble and how much I can make the
second marble which is free floating
spin as a result you can see that every
time I make a pass around the marble I'm
affecting the spin of them are going
actually I'm even pulling it towards the
marble in my hand now I'm looking at
releasing one marble with two marbles
attached together to see if there's any
difference in the attraction it looks
like the two marbles are pretty happy
being by themselves and that third
marble is left out
this time I'm putting the third marble
in motion and sure enough it if it gets
close enough it is attracted by the
other two now I have strings of four
marbles each and we're going to see if
they come together that's a
funny-looking snake-like thing we got a
big kick out of seeing that then you tap
it in the middle and it turns into a
ring this time I have two sets of four
marbles and they had the like pole
facing each other so they were repelling
each other and they would swing back and
forth and back and forth and they
actually did repel each other and
they're pushing each other away now I've
got one set of five marbles one big one
in the middle and two little ones on
either side and I'm seeing what
influence I can have on those five with
one small marble and look it attaches to
the end of the string
this time I start with the blue face of
the small marble and the five marbles
together facing each other
initially they repelled but eventually
the attractive force overcame it and
they came together the next thing we
took a look at was a string of marbles
we wanted to see how they reacted when
we spun them around as I spin them it
becomes more and more difficult as I go
faster and faster for the marbles to
stay together where do you think they're
gonna let go now I have two rings of
magnetic marbles I passed them very
close to each other and they show no
sign of attracting they seem to be very
happy just being on their own their own
little ring but if they get close enough
and they're moving slowly enough they
will attract let's try it with them very
close together moving very slowly you
can see they just are very happy beyond
their own and there is not nearly as
much attractive force as there was
earlier with the two individual marbles
a comeback can wasn't quite as
interesting on orbit as it is here on
the ground I could let it go here as I
spun it up and you can see how its
rotation rate increases and decreases as
the medal weight catches up I also tried
to spin it up before I let it go and you
can see it rotates quickly one direction
and slightly goes the other direction
back and forth until it comes to a stop
but because you can't lay it on a table
and spin it up and have it roll down the
table or come back to you as you let it
go it's not as interesting here in this
first sequence with the car on track
I had wound the car up and just let it
go without the track and here because of
action-reaction you see the car doing
and end-over-end wheelie next i tried to
get the car to run on the wall the main
result when I release it is that the car
Springs back toward me off the wall from
the little force I had applied with my
hand to hold it there getting the car to
run on the track was a bit easier in
space than on earth because the car
didn't have to build up as much velocity
to stay on the track as it did on earth
in the second sequence I got the car
started and then let it go
here you see that second sequence in
slow motion
wherever the car is on the track the
whole system car and track together
moves toward that general direction next
I started the car on the track by giving
it a push rather than winding it up in
this case we wanted to see how long the
car would stay on the track if I held
the track steady enough where I wouldn't
bounce the car off the track even though
I knew intuitively by the laws of
physics that this would be the case it
was amazing to me that any forward
velocity of the car at all was enough to
provide the necessary centripetal
acceleration to keep the car on the
track
here in this second sequence where I
just push the car rather than winding it
up in this view the car ends up stopping
on the top of the track this was amazing
even in space to see the car creep along
ever so slowly and then stop and sit
there at the top
finally the car comes off the track and
winds up in the center of the track
before they both slowly drift away
next in a demonstration of centripetal
acceleration I get the car started on
the track and then open the track once
there is an opening the car flies out in
a straight line ok I just like to remind
all the folks that are watching out
there that especially the children that
science applies to everything even toys
and we hope that our demonstrations
today have given you just a taste of
scientific research in space and we want
to encourage all the children out there
that do well in science and math and to
learn all you can about the world around
you because we need people like you to
design and maybe even fly the
experiments of the future so as we say
goodbye we're going to release all of
our toys at once 1 2 3 now
okay bye-bye everybody