Comments on: Myth: The astronauts didn’t float away because they had heavy boots

By: sciencegeekgirl

sciencegeekgirl — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:46:50 +0000

Exactly. That’s why it’s called a myth. If that’s what you mean.

By: jessy

jessy — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:31:27 +0000

rubbish

By: Robert Pearlman

Robert Pearlman — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:24:12 +0000

I found this both fascinating and nostalgic as in 1995, I led a student group that conducted the “Heavy Boots” survey at the University of Maryland at College Park.

At the time I was president of the Maryland Students for the Exploration of Space (MSEDS), a chapter of the larger national organizations SEDS-USA. Largely comprised of astronomy and physics majors, the members of MSEDS decided one night to randomly call students listed in the campus directory and ask the question, “What would happen if you were to stand on the Moon and release a pen from your hand?”

If the person’s reply was not “drop to the surface of the Moon” then we asked the follow-up question about why the astronauts who walked on the Moon didn’t also float or float away.

Our poll differed from the one described by Steve Detweiler in that we didn’t ask it as a set of multiple choice questions. All the replies were free form.

In addition to asking the two questions, we also asked for the student’s year and major.

We found at least one physic student (a junior if I remember correctly) whose answer to the first question was incorrect. Overall, the correct responses were not as high as Detweiler’s example — I suspect because we did not offer choices.

But it was the follow-up question that was more interesting (at least to me). We received explanations that the astronauts were tethered to the “space shuttle”, that the astronauts wore “anti-gravity” spacesuits and that they “held on” to the Moon. Two replied with surprise that astronauts had even been to the Moon.

And without prompting, three said some version of “they were wearing heavy boots”.

Since reading your blog last night, I have tried to locate the summary we wrote up afterwards of the results but have yet to find it. I remember copying it a few years ago to a backup CD, but what happened to it in the intervening years (and moves) has escaped me. I am going to reach out to some of our members from back then to see if they retained copies.

I do not recall what led us to conduct the poll that night; I am fairly certain it was not an impromptu thought on any of our parts, though I wonder where we learned about it…

By: Ilya Lisenker

Ilya Lisenker — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:22:54 +0000

Somehow, Russian middle school students were able to absorb that fact in 6th grade (physics was not an elective). What we did have was a giant glass tube which could be evacuated with a hand pump and which contained a feather, a BB and a small block of wood. What we did not have was computers that make pretty pictures out of such experiments making them seem like another computer game where anything happens. You just can’t replace first hand experience with virtual learning and have it become truly a part of you. Same way as the (otherwise dumb) kid who burnt holes in his uniform in eighth grade chemistry (also not elective) will never forget that sulfuric acid is not volatile so even dilute acid will become concentrated once the water evaporates.

By: Peter Lyons

Peter Lyons — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:02:22 +0000

Here’s comedian Mitch Hedberg’s take on the whole gravity issue: “My belt holds up my pants and my pants have belt loops that hold up the belt. What the f***’s really goin on down there? Who is the real hero?”

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mitch_Hedberg