For SSEP Mission 7 to ISS Student Researchers – A Challenge: Understanding Weightlessness – You Want Me to Take a Bathroom Scale Where?

This post is for teachers in the 25 communities across the U.S. starting SSEP Mission 7 to ISS this week. You are invited to use this challenge to get the nearly 10,000 students immersed in Mission 7 microgravity experiment design to start thinking about the concept of microgravity (often referred to as the phenomenon of ‘weighlessness’). The solution to the Challenge will be posted Tuesday, September 16, 2014. 

 

I’ve heard a lot about this weightlessness stuff, with astronauts having a great time floating around in space. So I wanted to find out first hand what’s going on up there. Since they don’t have a spare seat on the next flight to low Earth orbit (at least not yet), I looked far and wide to find an amazingly tall mountain whose peak rises to the Space Station’s altitude in orbit so I could climb up and see for myself.

Station orbits the Earth about 260 miles (420 km) above sea level, and, by the way, crew and station are zipping along at 4.7 MILES PER SECOND (7.6 km/sec) relative to you sitting there at your computer. Bam. The Station just moved 4.7 miles. Really.

It took some Googling, but I found it! See my mountain in the picture? It accidentally got captured in an old Space Shuttle photo. Mt. Everest is only 5.5 miles (8.8 km) high. MY mountain (Jeff’s Peak) is 260 miles (420 km) high. I found it south of the Land of Make-Believe, down a not too well traveled path. Still, you’d think someone would have noticed it since it’s 47 times higher than Mt. Everest. (Have you ever heard of Jeff’s peak? No? See, nobody knows about it!)

So this week, I’m going to take the time to climb my mountain, and in my hand is my trusty bathroom scale, spring-loaded and guaranteed to be accurate at any altitude. I’ll camp out at the top, and I’ll wait until Space Station flies right by my mountain, so I can look in the windows and see if those lucky astronauts are weightless and floating around.

Here now the challenge—
As soon as I confirm they’re weightless in the Space Station, I’ll step on my bathroom scale to see my weight. If I weigh say 150 lbs (68 kg) when I’m standing on my scale in my bathroom at home, what will I weigh on top of my mountain?

Hint: You don’t actually need to calculate my weight. I’ll do that in the Solution to the Challenge. Your assignment—if you decide to accept it—is to guess what you think I’ll weigh and why. Hmmmm, lots of possibilities.

Post your guesses below, and remember to include why you think your guess is correct. Students of ALL ages are welcome to post a guess.

I’ll even give you until the the beginning of next week to noodle on this in class, and at home with your parents, and then post your guesses. I’ll post the answer next Tuesday September 16, 2014, right here at the SSEP National Blog. See you then, and good luck noodling!

Also – if you want to follow along with the latest news from the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), you are invited to subscribe to the SSEP National Blog at the bottom of the right column.

 

 


The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S., and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with NanoRacks LLC, working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory. SSEP is the first pre-college STEM education program that is both a U.S. national initiative and implemented as an on-orbit commercial space venture.

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), and Subaru of America, Inc. are National Partners on the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.

17 Responses to For SSEP Mission 7 to ISS Student Researchers – A Challenge: Understanding Weightlessness – You Want Me to Take a Bathroom Scale Where?

  1. Ms Smith's fifth Grade Class September 12, 2014 at 2:53 pm #

    You would weigh 0 pounds. You would be 260 miles above the Earth where weightlessness occurs. How would you be able to have weight if at that height there is no gravity?

  2. Marcus Werner, 8th grade September 13, 2014 at 3:14 pm #

    I believe the man on the mountain would still weigh close to 150 lbs. because gravity is still pulling him to Earth just not as strong as if he were at 0 ft off the ground. The people in the space station appear to be weightless because they are in a state of free fall toward the earth at the same rate that the earth curves therefore not getting any closer to earth and therefore appear to be weightless. The man on the mountain is not falling; he’s just standing there. The ISS and the astronauts are both falling at the same speed because gravity pulls them down towards the earth, but the earth curves so they fall and curve, and fall and curve. Therefore, they are not getting any closer to Earth.

  3. Soham September 14, 2014 at 10:28 pm #

    I think that you would weigh 132 pounds at that height if you weighed 150 pounds at sea level. Gravity is weaker at farther distances. You would not be 0 pounds because you are not falling. The astronauts in the ISS only are weightless because they are in constant free fall. There is gravity at the height because the ISS orbits the earth. Gravity needs to be present for an object to orbit another. I found an equation on Wikipedia that calculated that 150 fifty pounds would weigh 132 pounds 260 miles high.

  4. Miguel sancheZ September 15, 2014 at 12:22 pm #

    I think you would weigh 18.34 lbs also I think it would be very hard to climb that mountain

  5. Screed September 15, 2014 at 12:23 pm #

    This was a very interesting article I found while scrolling through the wonders of ssep

  6. Hayes September 15, 2014 at 12:23 pm #

    I think it would be really cool to see your wieght change like that in Space. I would love being like 20 pounds and flying around.

  7. Carson Gillespie September 15, 2014 at 12:25 pm #

    You would weigh almost as much as you would on sea level, but you are not in a free fall, so you would weigh around 130-135 pounds, because gravities pull is not as strong

  8. Nicho Adams September 15, 2014 at 12:25 pm #

    This Article is possibly the most interesting thing I’ve seen all day. I love ssep and I would love for my experiment to go to space it would be the most honorable and biggest achievement I’ve ever made in my life.

  9. JT September 15, 2014 at 12:25 pm #

    You would weigh a little less, being about 70 pounds.

  10. Miss Gorditas' 3rd Grade class September 15, 2014 at 12:26 pm #

    You will be less pounds than you were at your house but I don’t think you would be 0 pounds

  11. Anastasia September 15, 2014 at 1:24 pm #

    I believe that you will weight around 135 lbs because in space, if is not 0 gravity, it is microgravity, and being that close to the Earth, allows me to assume that you will weight about 90% of your current weight.

  12. Ryan September 15, 2014 at 1:25 pm #

    I think you would weigh about 130 pounds on the top of the mountian, because the gravity of the Earth is still strong out there. The astronauts on the ISS seem weightless because of the speed they are constantly traveling at, or they are at a constant free fall.

  13. Katherine Chiang, Madelyn Jones September 15, 2014 at 1:25 pm #

    Madelyn and I believe that the answer is thirteen lbs less than the original weight which is 137 lbs.

  14. Ishan September 15, 2014 at 1:25 pm #

    I am guessing you would weigh about 90 pounds, because there is still gravity, but just less of it.

  15. Matthew September 15, 2014 at 1:26 pm #

    You weight at 260 miles would be 135 lbs.

  16. London Glenn September 15, 2014 at 1:27 pm #

    On your mountain that is 260 miles high you would be experiencing about 90 percent of the gravitational force you feel at see level. If you weighed 150 lbs (68 kg) you would weigh about 135 lbs (61.2 kg). The ISS experiences weightlessness because they are in constant free fall.

  17. Christopher September 15, 2014 at 1:28 pm #

    I think that your weight on the top of the mountain would only be a bit less than at sea level. I think this because “weightlessness” is only a constant free fall, but it feels like you are weightless. So, if you are on top of a mountain you cannot be freefalling because you are standing.

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S., and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with DreamUp PBC and NanoRacks LLC, which are working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory. SSEP is the first pre-college STEM education program that is both a U.S. national initiative and implemented as an on-orbit commercial space venture.