On this Tuesday, I figured I would offer a nice throwback for everyone... Bill Nye! But not Bill Nye the Science Guy that we typically see... I found a physics video with a serious Bill Nye (I know, strange right?)

The video is rather long, about 45 minutes, but I focused on about 5 minutes of it (about 1:30-5:54 if you are tuning in from the link above).

Nye talks about an older theory of Aristotle's, which stated that objects of different masses fall at different velocities due to their mass. That theory was later challenged by Galileo, who said that heavier objects only seemed to fall faster due to air resistance... this relationship makes sense, since this year we learned that the terminal velocity of any object is directly proportionate to its mass. Even Galileo, many years ago, understood how air resistance messed with theoretically "perfect" physics models. Air resistance makes algebraically based physics difficult to work with in real world situations, since the air around us creates opposing forces daily (sorry Powlin!)

The video also shows a chamber at a NASA research building which, against the odds, reverses most effects of air resistance for testing purposes. For testing for equipment sent to the International Space Station, all air is sucked out of the chamber, and objects are dropped and tested with a lack of air resistance. I was kind of hoping they would drop the ball and the feather they were using as a demonstration in the beginning of the video... Oh well, I guess I will have to find my own chamber to test my curiosity!

In conclusion, I would have to say that air resistance is a pretty big part of application physics (and also a big pain in the butt!)

Until next time, Fizzix Community, until next time.