Well, I guess it's time to turn in my "Father of the Year" plaque and "#1 Dad" t-shirt. This guy totally schools me.*
Just a couple of quibbles: 100,000 feet isn't really "space," which starts about three times as high as these boys' balloon got. Also, the Earth's curvature isn't so apparent at that altitude, the roundness is just a distortion from their camera's fish-eye lens. But still . . . totally cool!
Seriously, I used to think about doing projects exactly like this all the time. I mean, when I was around 8 years old I actually drew up plans! Of course back then there weren't any tiny video cameras, mobile phones or GPS devices. My scheme involved a Kodak Instamatic and a really long string to simultaneously click the shutter, release the balloons and deploy the parachute. Still: same principle.
This dad's boys will remember this experience the rest of their lives. Engineering in action, potential scientists in the making. Sorry I let you down, girls. Anybody want to lend me an iPhone? It's not too late.
.
.
.
* "Totally schools me" is how the hep cats would say that, right? I don't want to get dissed in my own blog. Chillax, dawgs.
.
5 comments:
Sigh. Edmund's Scientific Supply catalog was the pornography of my youth.
Well, that and the 629.45 section of the public library.
And yes, Captain Girlfriend agrees it's wrong to index your obsessions by using the Dewey Decimal System.
There's another way?
"'Totally schools me' is how the hep cats would say that, right?"
I think the phrase you're looking for is "totally pwned me". But that could be totally 2009.
ronnie, who's IN UR BLOG DISSIN UR COMMENTS
Wow. I never realized how not awesome our childhood was until I saw this video! This thing makes model rockets look like paper airplanes. ;)
Pretty cool!
I was brought up in a literary household, but not - at all - a scientific one. Husband introduced me to model rockets. With him I bought, assembled, painted and launched my first one. I decided to go all feminist/girly and painted it pink and purple. It was big - fat and well over 45cm tall.
When I launched that - it was magic, I tell ya. Pure Magic.
Post a Comment