Thursday, May 01, 2008

"Boomerangs In Space!"




So how does a boomerang work? Should this be confusing? An airfoil can produce lift without air? (Bjorn feels like an idiot as Lou points out that the dude is INSIDE the spaceship, so there IS air... Bjorn finds spaceman's boomeranging skills impressive nonetheless.) Discuss.

2 comments:

Coach Lou said...

If there were no air ... the astronaut would be suffocating. The shuttle is pressurized with air.

Four forces "acting" on a flying object on earth:

1. gravity
2. drag
3. lift
4. thrust (not really "acting")

The only force missing in the shuttle is gravity. If he were outside the shuttle, all but thrust would be absent.

Bjorn said...

Oh yeah. I'm an idiot.
I think I let my imagination (and my initial vision of a man boomeranging on the moon!) take over, even during that video. But thanks for answering my question ("Should this be confusing?"). :) Obviously, not.