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Nov 18, 2009 |
Kids' Science Challenge: Mars - Golf
If you want to drive golf balls like Tiger Woods, no need for practice. Just head on up to Mars! music; ambience paper crumpling JM: Theres a reason we crumple paper before tossing it into the recycling bin; its a good way to counter earths dense air pressure. Try tossing an uncrumpled page, and its not going to make it to the basket. But toss a paper-ball on Mars, and itll really go the distance. Im Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. AV: When we want a ball to go really far and really fast, we make it really small, like a golf ball. On Mars we could play golf with even bigger balls because they would see the air less. They would notice it less and be able to go just as far into the hole 300 yards away. JM: With low air pressure and minimal gravity, Mars just might be the ideal playground for all kinds of sports, if we ever colonize the planet. Ashwin Vasavada is a planetary scientist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Hes also a participant in our latest edition of the Kids Science Challenge, a nationwide competition for 3rd to 6th graders. And Imagining Sports on Mars is one of this years entry categories. AV: All of the sports equipment that we use on Earth are really kind of tuned to Earths atmosphere. Things are affected by the wind, just like the paper. Different balls and Frisbees and things like that that are carried around by the wind in different ways, and all thatll have to be sort of rethought and redone as we go to Mars. Frisbee is probably the kind of sports equipment thats most tuned to Earths atmosphere. Its basically like a wing. If you werent throwing it and it wasnt flying through the air and being lifted by the air, it would just drop, but on Mars, where the air is so much thinner, Frisbee wont work so well. Itll probably just drop if we threw it normally like we do on Earth. JM: If you know a 3rd to 6th grader who can come up with an idea for a sport thats tailored to the Martian environment, well, have them log on to kidsciencechallenge.com. Thats kidsciencechallenge.com. Pulse of the Planets Kids Science Challenge is made possible by the National Science Foundation. Im Jim Metzner. SPACE,Mars,Sports Science Scientist: Ashwin Vasavada |
