Fluid-Blob Toy in Microgravity
High School / Science / Environmental Science
This toy has liquid blobs that fall down slanted ramps inside a chamber filled with a clear liquid. Before the chamber is released to fall, the blobs are ovoid-shaped, essentially squashed down against the ramp by gravity. The ramp is stopping the blob from falling straight downward. Upon release to fall, though, surface tension pulls each blob into a nearly spherical shape since the effects of gravity are drastically reduced in free fall. The ramp is falling right with the blobs, so it does not impede their falling. The entire apparatus is falling together, the container, the ramps, the clear liquid, and the blobs Dropping experiments in free fall produces a microgravity environment just like the microgravity environment on the International Space Station, albeit for a much shorter time.