It's a story that we've all heard a million times before. A young boy, excited about the fringe research of his parents, climbs aboard an experimental aircraft and careens towards the stratosphere.
Or so we think.
Turns out the kid, perhaps terrified at the impending punishment that comes from unmooring your dad's UFO, was hiding in the attic all along. Whoops.
And you know what? A moderate dose of science could have saved everyone a lot of embarrassment.
About an hour into the incident, one of Colorado's news agencies reported that the "disc" of the UFO had a diameter of 20 feet. Well, a 20 foot diameter helium balloon (905 internal cubic feet) would have more than enough lift to hoist a 40-50 pound 6-year-old.
But the balloon wasn't even close to spherical.
A 20 foot diameter paraboloid (you know, UFO-shaped) that's ten feet tall (which is a huge assumption - the news gave it as only five feet tall) has an internal volume of only 314 cubic feet! This would give it just enough lift to hoist the family cat (~17 pounds) assuming he hadn't been at the friskies too often.
Which Dad should have known, since he designed the damn balloon.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
According to Wikipedia, sheriffs did consult with a Colorado State physics professor and provided him with the dimensions of the balloon as given by Richard Heene (which turned out to be incorrect). So the professor came to the conclusion that the balloon-kid system would be buoyant, which he reported to sheriffs.
So, I guess the real lesson isn't, "Use science more!" but "Flawed data begets flawed conclusions."
Garbage in, garbage out, perhaps?
Post a Comment