We introduced our new vacuum drop exhibit at the Safari Kid Danville Summer Camp for School Children. This apparatus complements the wind tunnel apparatus to teach about the effect of air resistance on how fast objects fall. It was inspired by the hammer-and-feather drop experiment performed on the moon during the Apollo 15 mission. If an object has a high enough cross-sectional area per mass, like a parachute, it will quickly reach its terminal velocity and fall slowly to earth. However, by evacuating the tube, light and heavy objects will fall at the same rate. The kids were also excited by making parachutes and blowing toy space capsules out the top of the wind tunnel.
New Vacuum Drop Experiment Introduced at Safari Kid Summer Camp
