Note that this Challenge is covered as part of the program start Skype for your community’s Local Team of Mission 10 educators. These Skypes for the Mission 10 communities are being conducted by SSEP National Program Director Dr. Jeff Goldstein through Friday, February 26, 2016.
This blog post is for teachers in the 12 communities across the U.S. that just started SSEP Mission 10 to ISS. You are invited to use this Challenge with your students to get them thinking about the concept of microgravity (the technical name for the phenomenon of ‘weightlessness’). As part of this Challenge, students are asked to submit what they think is an answer in the ‘Leave a Reply’ section below. Please encourage your students to submit answers, so that all students visiting this blog post can see what other Mission 10 students across the U.S. are thinking. Let’s use this blog post as a social media platform for sharing thoughts about microgravity.
[2/23/16 1:00 pm ET update: WOW!! What great comments below already, and the post has only been up for 4 hours! Good thinking everyone:)]
The solution to the Challenge will be posted to this SSEP National Blog on Tuesday, March 1, 2016.
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 close to 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 that really tall mountain! 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 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.
Submit your guesses below in the ‘Leave a Reply’ section, 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 a week to noodle on this in class, and at home with your parents. I’ll post the answer next Tuesday, March 1, 2016, 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.
[**Metric system note: in the metric system, weight is measured in Newtons (N). 150 lbs is equivalent to 667 Newtons, which is the weight of a 68 kg mass at Earth’s surface.]
The solution to this Challenge was posted Tuesday, March 1, 2016.
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 U.S. National Partners on the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program. Magellan Aerospace is a Canadian National Partner on the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.
I think he’ll weigh 2 lbs, because there is little gravity at that elevation.
I think he will weigh 20 pounds in space because earth’s gravitational pull is different than space.
If the gentleman is 150 pounds standing on the ground, what will he be on top of a mountain that is by the space station? I believe he will be 25 ponds because it is by the planet Mars.
I think that he will weigh at the most 5lbs. I think this because he is 150lbs and there’s no way he can weigh more than 5lbs because he is basically in microgravity.
I think you will weigh at least 5-10 lbs. because there is not as much gravity on a mountain because of the elevation of the mountain. There is not as much gravity as on Earth because at that level of elevation you would basically be in microgravity.
I think he will weigh about 20 lbs.
I think the guy will weigh about 35 lbs.
He will weigh 150 pounds, no matter the atmospheric surroundings. Just because there is less gravitational pull on an object doesn’t mean that the object’s mass will vary, only the force being applied to the body or object changes.
I believe that you would weigh more because of the weight of the atmosphere and the weight of the discomfort of the gravitational pull would cause an imbalance on your body pull and cause it to press down. So he/you would probably weigh 250 pounds because of the push and pull, even though the body hasn’t changed its structure it will still be pulled down harder.
If somebody weighs 150 pounds on Earth, they will also weigh 150 pounds in space on top of Jeff’s Peak. Even though the gravity pulling on the object is less than it would be here on Earth, he is still the same weight, because his physical features did not change at all.
I think that if the man weighed 150 pounds on earth he would weigh around 95 pounds in space. I don’t think he would weight less than this because he’s not in zero gravity but microgravity. Also the man is not actually in space but just in a high level of altitude and I believe that he would weigh less if he was actually in space or microgravity.
I think you will weigh at least 120 lbs. Because there is not as much gravity on a mountain because of the elevation of the mountain you would basically be in microgravity.
I think he will weigh 5 lbs. I believe this because there is little gravity at that high of an elevation and his weight will be different than what it really is on Earth.
I believe that he will weigh roughly 150lbs, just the way gravity is effecting him and his weight will change. I believe this because you always have a certain amount of weight no matter where you are, and if you are at the same elevation as the astronauts, who are floating, you will also be floating because of your location to the astronauts, if you aren’t dead of course.
I think that you would weigh 0lbs because at that height gravity would be very weak so your weight would decrease with the gravity.
The man will weigh 150 pounds, because no matter where he is, if he weighs 150 pounds on earth he will weigh the same outside of earth its just the gravitational pull that is different. Because the gravitational pull is greater on earth vs. in space.
Although you truly are at the same height as the space station (assuming you truly are, in fact, able to get on a mountain that high), your weight would stay the same. That mountain is massive! It will have an extremely high pull on your body. Your body would likely weigh either the exact same as what it did in your bathroom (150 lbs.), or up to ten pounds more (160 lbs.).
I personally believe that the man will weigh less in space than he does on Earth. If I had to guess I’d say approximately 20-30 pounds. Here’s why: weight is defined as “the force that gravitation exerts upon a body,” so, if there is more gravity here on Earth, he will have more gravitational force pulling down on him as compared to a micro-gravity environment. Therefore, he will weigh more on Earth than he will in a micro-gravity environment.
If a person on Earth weighs a certain weight, no matter what they will still weigh the same in space. Even if the person is on a mountain, they will way the same because the mountain does not change the gravitational pull on that person and being on top of a mountain is just like being in micro gravity. I think the person will still weigh 150 pounds.
I don’t think that the weight of the man is less than his weight on earth because weight is defined as a body’s relative mass or the quantity of matter contained by it, giving rise to a downward force, the downward force is gravity so the man weight will be less than what it is on earth. He will weigh more on earth because of the earths gravity.
I think that he will still weigh the same, because he wont lose any lbs. physically. The scale will display a different weight because of how much gravity is pulling him down. He will still weigh 150 lbs. but gravity effects on how the scale will view his weight.
If the man is standing on a mountain that is 260 miles high then he would weigh 75 pounds.
I infer that if a man weighs 150 pounds on earth he will weigh around 100 pounds on top of the mountain. I say this because the man is in low earth orbit but he is still on earth, so he is still highly affected by the earths gravitational pull.
Hmmm. There’s another problem. I think it’s going to be really hard for me to walk up this mountain.
-doctorjeff
I believe that the man would weigh drastically less than he would at sea level, because there’s less gravitational force on him.
I believe that this person, weighing 150 pounds at sea level, will be less than one half of a pound. My reasoning behind this is that on the ISS, at the same altitude as “Jeff’s Peak,” the astronauts appear to be weightless and do not fall in one direction. This will cause the person to be nearly weightless on “Jeff’s Peak.”
In microgravity, I feel like the mass in objects are reduced. Because of this, I think that Jeff’s body mass will reduce while on top of the mountain making him weigh less. Since the mountain is 260 miles high, then I think Jeff would weigh 10-20 pounds instead.
I believe that Jeff will weigh in between 5-10 pounds. He will be located in the middle of the microgravity space and Earths gravitational pull. His mountain is approximately 260 miles high in the air which is far out of the reach of earths gravitational pull.
I think he will weigh about 10 pounds because there is less gravity in space since there is less gravity up there a few pounds will get knocked off. The weight will get cut off of him.
I think that he will weigh about 7-15 pounds. That high up, your gravity will decrease, but there is at least a little bit of gravity because if there wasn’t, the top of the mountain would just float around, and it wouldn’t stay still.
I think the man will weigh 10 pounds because in space there is less gravity than there is on earth so you would weigh less in space than you would on earth.
I believe the man will weigh about 30 to 50 pounds. Here’s why: Weight is the gravitational force pushing down on you. Also the higher up you are the less gravity there is, so I believe he will weigh less.
If the gentleman is 150 pounds standing on the ground, what will he be on top of a mountain that is by the space station? I believe the gentleman would weigh almost one-sixth of his weight in microgravity
The man will still weigh 150 pounds. I think this because the man is still on earth and its gravity still has a great pull on him.
If he weighs 260 pounds on earth in his bathroom, I think he will weigh about 100 pounds on his mountain. I say this because if his mountain is high enough to reach in space, that means that the amount of gravity has changed.
If the human man weighs approximately 150 lbs i be leave on the mountain he would weigh about 25 pounds on the mountain. In micro gravity he would weigh five -0 pounds.
I think he will weigh in at the 20-30 pound range. Considering that gravitational pull is different from earth than it is in space you can also stay in the air longer.
I believe that he will weigh 50lbs because if he climbs up the mountain of elevation. The height would change because of the gravitational pull and the micro gravity working together on his body causing weight change.
I believe that he will weigh around 60 pounds. Because on earth there is gravity holding you down , but in space there is hardly any gravity . So I believe that you can’t weigh over 75 pounds.
I believe that he will weigh 26 lbs because when he is on top of the mountain he is by mars, and has more gravitation pull
I think he will weigh about 50 pounds because the higher you are from earth’s gravitational pull the weaker it is, but since the gravity is weaker your body would have less force pulling down making you lighter. Since you aren’t that high there is still going to be a little force still so it would take off a lot of weight but not all of it
I think that he will weigh about 20 pounds less than what he originally weighed because there is less gravitational pull there than when you are on the ground on Earth.
I think that if he weigh 150lbs he will weigh less than half of his weight in microgravity so I think that he will weigh about 51.72lbs in microgravity
I think at the top of the mountain he will still weigh 150lbs because I don’t think his altitude will affect his weight. He’ll weigh as much as he did at the bottom of the mountain.
I believe that he will weigh the same 150 pounds as he does on earth. Weight in the first place is determined by how much gravity is pulling you down, so technically there is no weight change, but a change in gravity.
I think he will still have weight because the gravity will have a similar effect like the mass of air because there is still gravity, just an insignificant amount of it so it will almost be like he is weightless but he will still have weight. As a guess I would say .8 pounds.
I think he will weigh about 15-20 pounds lighter because the gravitational pull is not as strong. Because the gravity is weaker, there wouldn’t be as big of a force pulling him down making him seem lighter.
I think that his weight will remain the same because no matter the force on the gravitational pull I don’t think it will change the mass of the person.
I think if he weight’s a certain amount on earth he’ll weight less because the gravitational pull is different on space. If he weights 200 on earth, he’ll probably weight about 2-lbs on the atmosphere.
I think you will weight less than what you weigh at home. You’ll possibly weigh around 100 lbs. or even less. This is because you are so high up on the mountain that the Earth’s gravitational pull is weaker than normal. This will make you weigh less than at home.