The hammer and feather on the Moon

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The American astronaut David Scott (* 1932) conducted an interesting experiment on the Moon, toward the end of the  Apollo 15 mission in July/August 1971. In front of a running camera, he dropped a hammer (2.9 lb) and a falcon’s feather (0.06 lb), just to prove Galileo Galileis’ (1564–1641) thesis that objects fall to the ground with the same speed, regardless of their mass, provided the air resistance does not slow them down, as it is the case on Earth. On our planet, this experiment  could only be demonstrated in a vacuum.

Scott explains the attempt and after that you can see the hammer and the feather falling onto the moon dust at the same time. He comments the result, »How about that?« and adds, »Mr. Galileo was correct!«

2 Comments

  1. Gail Fitzpatrick | 18 February 2019

    DEAR GAIL;

    YOU WILL DEFINITELY BE ABLE TO SEE THE LIGHTHOUSE “BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON ON TUESDAY; FEBRUARY 18.
    AS THE SUPER MOON FOLLOWED BY THE FULL BLOODMOON ECLIPSE LAST MONTH WILL BE SPECTACULAR.
    IF YOU FOLLOW THE STARS THIS FULL MOON IS QUITE SIGNIFICANT
    LOVE MICHAEL. (YOUR OUT OF SPACE HUSBAND).

  2. Anonymous | 17 February 2019

    Now that is amazing! I never would have suspected that and can’t wait
    to tell my 75 yr. old husband, when he gets home from ice fishing. We
    live in Muskegon, Michigan.

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