Spacecraft Films

[taibak]

Hey,

I'm working on preparing a high school physics course for the fall and was wondering if anyone could reccomend a useful volume from Spacecraft Film's Apollo DVD's. What I'm looking for is something with good footage of something moving under Newton's laws of motion, preferably something that can't be easily seen on Earth. Any advice?

Thanx,
-Taibak

[JayUtah]

Well, hammer and feather come to mind.

[Count Zero]

Apollo 15 EVA 1 also has useful stuff, including nice examples of ballistic dust. As Dave Scott preps the rover, you see him toss a couple of small pieces away. They go surprisingly far.

I found a lot of good bits on the Apollo 16 set. On EVA 1, as they're setting up the ALSEP, John Young is throwing lots of the wrapping and also the "thumper" away. EVA 3 has Young falling down, then kicking his way back up in a mighty spray of ballistic dust. I think it's EVA 2 that has Charlie Duke's hand-stand, but I could be mistaken.

Apollo 14 has Al Shepards golf shot (though you can't really see the ball). I don't know if Jack Schmit's hammer throw is visible on the Apollo 17 footage.

Whatever clips you use, I very, very highly recommend copying them onto a "greatest hits" tape so you won't have to be searching through this & that disc in the middle of class.

[JayUtah]

Any of the shots of the astronauts righting themselves after falling would be interesting. The discussion to follow would be how rotation rates -- which depend only on moment of inertia and are unaffected by gravity -- relate to rise-and-fall rates, which are affected by it.

[Count Zero]

Look through the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal video clips. They have all of the EVA video, and the "interesting bits" - such as falls - are annotated. Here is the Apollo 16 link. It has at least two falls by Charlie Duke (on EVA 2) and the afore-mentioned fall by John Young. Duke & Young use different techniques to get back on their feet unassisted. I still haven't found the assisted recovery that margamatrix was carrying on about.

The DVDs have higher quality video. Use ALSJ to find the footage you need, then make your "greatest hits" dupes from the DVDs.