Helium balloon falling about 78 feet down

We dropped a helium balloon in a NASA drop tower and it fell about 78 feet down without being touched or held. Such an action illustrates the lack of gravity effects during free fall, which is precisely why things (e.g. astronauts, books, pencils) will float around on the Int'l Space Station.

The balloon in this demonstration was held for a fraction of a second after the experiment was released. The balloon string was then released and the balloon continued to fall with the experiment carrier.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• NASA
• drop
• tower
• microgravity
• zero-gravity
• weightless
• weightlessness
• helium
• balloon
• ISS
• international
• space
• station
• shuttle

[Cloudman06]

i dont goddamn get it...

[DIME10NASA]

Astronauts do NOT float on the space station because of no gravity. There is about 90% of 1-g up there! They float around inside because the station and the crew and all the other stuff is falling towards the Earth but going real fast sideways to fall around the Earth.

Imagine dropping a ball straight down. Then throwing it faster and faster sideways. It curves down to the ground more and more gradually. Throw it 17,500 mph sideways, it would fall so gradual, it would fall around the Earth.

[Albanianator]

Maybe the balloon is inside the carrier falling 75 feet down, I think lol, don't quote me on that.

[DIME10NASA]

Yes, the balloon is in the carrier (orange drag shield in other video).

[queondatavo]

This is awesome!

[dpignot2]

@DIME10NASA

Not so much. If I drop a bullet from my hand and it goes straight down and I simultaneously shoot a bullet from a gun (parallel to the ground), both bullets will hit the ground at the same time. The only force acting in the vertical direction is gravity (neglecting air resistance).

[daberko120ch]

@DIME10NASA i wouldnt want to be that box :/

[DIME10NASA]

Okay, I didn't word it well.

Sedimentation and buoyancy are opposite effects.

They are both the result of gravity and density differences.

Does that sound better?

[oads123]

buoyancy is not the opposite of gravity, gravity is the attravtive force between two objects independent of outside force

[miajailbreak]

pls remove this to save youtubes bandwidth/space

plsssssssssssssssssssssss

[huntwds]

Did you spend money setting up this test? I think my grandson could tell you all about balloons.

[Albanianator]

Ah, well I figured that out from this video and reading description, which was hard to understand hehe.

[Cloudman06]

Ohhhh k so the box is falling 75 feet with the balloon in it! Cool.