2 Using drop towers to simulate microgravity
When objects are dropped from the top of drop towers, they achieve freefall as they drop. This briefly creates a microgravity environment (Figure 4).
Listen to Audio 1 which describes drop towers and rollercoasters. A transcript is also provided if you would prefer to read it.
According to this New Scientist article (Cross, 1990), up to 10 seconds of a microgravity environment can be replicated in the Japan Microgravity Centre (JAMIC) (Figure 5).
To test your understanding of freefall and drop towers you should now complete Activity 2.
Activity 2 Drop towers and freefall
Allow approximately 15 minutes
Choose the correct answers to the following questions.
1. The Bremen drop tower is 140 metres high and objects freefalls from top to bottom in 4.6 seconds. What is the average speed achieved by objects in this drop tower? (Hint: divide distance by time. Then round your final answer to 2 significant figures.)
Answer
Actually, because it just gets faster and faster, thinking of this as an average speed is not particularly helpful.
3. JAMIC’s 700-metre drop tower provides a 500-metre freefall distance in about 10 seconds. What is the average speed of an item when dropped into the JAMIC? (Hint: divide distance by time.)
4. As Felix Baumgartner achieved about 370 m/s during his freefall, he was about ___ times faster in freefall than the average speed achieved by an item dropped in the Bremen drop tower (Question 1).
(Hint: divide Felix’s rounded speed by the rounded speed achieved in the drop tower. Then round your answer to 2 significant figures.)
Next, you will carry out your own experiment to calculate the acceleration of gravity on Earth.
OpenLearn - Microgravity: living on the International Space Station
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