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I too though this "boyish wonder" face was phony. And yet the "boyish wonder" face will change the fate of the whole video when I show it to my 7yo. The rest is

by aragot 12y ago

I too though this "boyish wonder" face was phony. And yet the "boyish wonder" face will change the fate of the whole video when I show it to my 7yo. The rest is concrete and iron, not really appealing to kids, despite the potential awesomeness of the huge vacuum chamber.

zelos 12y ago
Indeed, but the show is on primetime BBC2, not CBBC or CBeebies. Ah, I guess anything that brings more viewers to science content is good. I just miss the old days of Horizon.
- muglug 12y ago
  Me too. I grew up on Horizon, Tomorrow's World and QED.
antimagic 12y ago
What? No! I don't know about you, but I would have a silly grin on my face too if I actually got to see this experiment live - I mean it's such a classic result - we've all been told that this is what would happen, but very few of us actually get to see it. It's like the experience of seeing the moons of Jupiter the first time that you look at it through a telescope - yes, you know the moons are there, you've even seen photos of them in high-def colour, but there is something special about seeing it first hand. So no, I don't think that that's a fake grin. But then, as with most female geeks, I have a huge Brian Cox crush, so I may be biased ;)
- shangxiao 12y ago
  I would've also had a silly grin on my face due to the epiphany I would've experienced.
- anigbrowl 12y ago
  I find this perplexing. Obviously few of us would get to see a feather drop due to the lack of a huge vacuum chamber, but you can derive almost as much experimental entertainment by dropping, say, a ping-pong ball and a similarly sized marble or ball bearing. Really, I think the slow-motion camera has much more educational value than the vacuum chamber (cool as that is). When I was in school and we'd debate such things, I liked to do experiments but dropping things of different weight off the roof only takes you so far, as people might object that they hit the ground a fraction of a second apart but too little of an interval to notice given the relatively low height etc. If I was doing it now I'd just use my camera to tighten things up, and although it's slo-mo capabilities are limited several current consumer models deliver that functionality at affordable prices.
  - mkagenius 12y ago
    > but you can derive almost as much experimental entertainment by dropping, say, a ping-pong ball and a similarly sized marble or ball bearing. in a vacuum chamber, right? In air they wouldn't behave same.
    - anigbrowl 12y ago
      Ping-pong ball was a thoughtless example, but many things of different weights will be Good Enough for the junior experimenter, eg plastic ans steel pipe sections dropped straight downwards.
      - colomon 12y ago
        I demonstrated it to my son this morning by filling up one of two boots with coins and demonstrating both boots still fell at the same speed despite the weight difference.
  - Joeri 12y ago
    One of my science teachers demonstrated it in class with a vacuum glass tube containing a small feather and a small lead weight. I remember being equally amazed to see it. As pointed out, there is a difference between being told something and seeing it.
  - mfisher87 12y ago
    The demonstration that air resistance is the cause of the difference in fall duration is what you gain from this. You don't get to remove air resistance from the equation in any other way. It's easy for an ignorant person to assume there's no way air, something we "feel" no resistance from in our daily lives, would be able to fight the force of gravity to such a degree. This experiment makes that concept clear, where dropping a stick and a lead pipe from equal height would not.
- macrael 12y ago
  I was giddy just watching this video! I'm sure his joy was genuine. It's just amazing to see feathers fall straight and bounce(!) when they hit the ground.
  - chatman 12y ago
    The gay smile. Made me giddy too.
djrogers 12y ago
I was laughing and giggling the whole time myself - I'm pretty sure I had a similar look on my face. In fact almost everyone else in the video had a similar goofy look at one point or another! It's one thing to know that this will happen, it's another entirely to see it happen.

by aragot 12y ago

zelos 12y ago

Indeed, but the show is on primetime BBC2, not CBBC or CBeebies. Ah, I guess anything that brings more viewers to science content is good. I just miss the old days of Horizon.

muglug 12y ago
Me too. I grew up on Horizon, Tomorrow's World and QED.

antimagic 12y ago

What? No! I don't know about you, but I would have a silly grin on my face too if I actually got to see this experiment live - I mean it's such a classic result - we've all been told that this is what would happen, but very few of us actually get to see it. It's like the experience of seeing the moons of Jupiter the first time that you look at it through a telescope - yes, you know the moons are there, you've even seen photos of them in high-def colour, but there is something special about seeing it first hand. So no, I don't think that that's a fake grin. But then, as with most female geeks, I have a huge Brian Cox crush, so I may be biased ;)

shangxiao 12y ago
I would've also had a silly grin on my face due to the epiphany I would've experienced.
anigbrowl 12y ago
I find this perplexing. Obviously few of us would get to see a feather drop due to the lack of a huge vacuum chamber, but you can derive almost as much experimental entertainment by dropping, say, a ping-pong ball and a similarly sized marble or ball bearing. Really, I think the slow-motion camera has much more educational value than the vacuum chamber (cool as that is). When I was in school and we'd debate such things, I liked to do experiments but dropping things of different weight off the roof only takes you so far, as people might object that they hit the ground a fraction of a second apart but too little of an interval to notice given the relatively low height etc. If I was doing it now I'd just use my camera to tighten things up, and although it's slo-mo capabilities are limited several current consumer models deliver that functionality at affordable prices.
- mkagenius 12y ago
  > but you can derive almost as much experimental entertainment by dropping, say, a ping-pong ball and a similarly sized marble or ball bearing. in a vacuum chamber, right? In air they wouldn't behave same.
  - anigbrowl 12y ago
    Ping-pong ball was a thoughtless example, but many things of different weights will be Good Enough for the junior experimenter, eg plastic ans steel pipe sections dropped straight downwards.
    - colomon 12y ago
      I demonstrated it to my son this morning by filling up one of two boots with coins and demonstrating both boots still fell at the same speed despite the weight difference.
- Joeri 12y ago
  One of my science teachers demonstrated it in class with a vacuum glass tube containing a small feather and a small lead weight. I remember being equally amazed to see it. As pointed out, there is a difference between being told something and seeing it.
- mfisher87 12y ago
  The demonstration that air resistance is the cause of the difference in fall duration is what you gain from this. You don't get to remove air resistance from the equation in any other way. It's easy for an ignorant person to assume there's no way air, something we "feel" no resistance from in our daily lives, would be able to fight the force of gravity to such a degree. This experiment makes that concept clear, where dropping a stick and a lead pipe from equal height would not.
macrael 12y ago
I was giddy just watching this video! I'm sure his joy was genuine. It's just amazing to see feathers fall straight and bounce(!) when they hit the ground.
- chatman 12y ago
  The gay smile. Made me giddy too.

djrogers 12y ago

I was laughing and giggling the whole time myself - I'm pretty sure I had a similar look on my face. In fact almost everyone else in the video had a similar goofy look at one point or another! It's one thing to know that this will happen, it's another entirely to see it happen.