Originally posted by uzless kept saying "we" in the inteview. Unless he is already an egomaniac referring to himself in the 3rd person, then he got help. Likely by his parents.
You may wish to poo-poo his work but how many other 9 year olds have done something like this? Help from daddy or no.
Originally posted by sonhouse You may wish to poo-poo his work but how many other 9 year olds have done something like this? Help from daddy or no.
He had a science project due. His dad buys him a baloon, a cooler, and a camera. Then dad puts it together with a tracking device. Then dad drives halfway across the state to retrieve the baloon and camera.
Originally posted by uzless He had a science project due. His dad buys him a baloon, a cooler, and a camera. Then dad puts it together with a tracking device. Then dad drives halfway across the state to retrieve the baloon and camera.
Tell me again what this kid actually did?
You interviewed the family and you know that was the sequence? You personally know the kid did none of the work?
I was pretty much thinking the same thing as uzless, when watching the video. Well, they pretty much admitted it in the video when the mom started talking about how she does the math.
But I must say that the kid at least seems pretty engaged and at least understands some of the key concepts. Which is more than I can say for most science fair projects from kids this age...
At least this is more impressive than the last "balloon boy" to make news...
Originally posted by uzless It doesn't take a ballon scientist to recognize family assistance when one sees it.
On another note. What part of any of this has to do with science? He tied a camera to a ballon and took some blurry pix...big deal.
Shoulda charged the little bastard with littering when his balloon crashed!
Wow, always in there to instill curiosity on the young I see.
I did what you said btw, started a science project and invented a new way to generate and detect electricity and it wowed the judges but it really was my project, with my kid holding things up while I sprayed paint and so forth. So I know what you mean, but you don't know in that case just what the kid did and what the parents did. I think the parents would have known to fix the focus before it flew for instance. I saw the pics were blurry. BTW, my invention I saw years later in a real product, it was a flashlight powered exactly as I invented it, you may have seen the one that you shake back and forth, it has a magnet on an internal slider and wrapped around that a coil that picks up the generated electricity to charge the battery for the LED flashlight. That's exactly what I invented ten years before. Pisssses me off I didn't think it could actually be a viable product. I do that a lot. I just thought of it as a neat project for a science fair. Oh well.
Originally posted by sonhouse Wow, always in there to instill curiosity on the young I see.
I did what you said btw, started a science project and invented a new way to generate and detect electricity and it wowed the judges but it really was my project, with my kid holding things up while I sprayed paint and so forth. So I know what you mean, but you don't know in that case just what ...[text shortened]... product. I do that a lot. I just thought of it as a neat project for a science fair. Oh well.
Sounds to me that the only thing you're guilty of is not being as cynical as the other posters---a position I would wear with pride.
Originally posted by PinkFloyd Sounds to me that the only thing you're guilty of is not being as cynical as the other posters---a position I would wear with pride.
I thought the kid put together the thing himself, maybe dad bought the stuff for him but the thing had a kid looking quality to it. For instance, the poor focus we both noticed. I would have thought an adult would have made sure the focus was good before launch.
A great project I thought.
Originally posted by sonhouse http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/06/19/dnt.mn.balloon.boy.kare?hpt=T2
Pretty smart kid, I'd say. Looks like his career is assured if he goes into engineering!
wow sounds different - how high do you need to fly to see the curvature anyway ? I don't remember noticing at comercial cruce hight, but maybe due to clouds etc.
Originally posted by Scheel wow sounds different - how high do you need to fly to see the curvature anyway ? I don't remember noticing at comercial cruce hight, but maybe due to clouds etc.
You have to get up a lot higher than commercial jets fly, 50 or 60 thousand feet at least.
More precisely, this is not the actual curvature of the earth, but rather proof of it. 🙂
(The shape of the shadow is determined by the curvature of the earth.)
And you can see this from ground level! (Granted, a clear horizon makes it easier to see.)
That is pretty impressive! I saw that on APOD today but couldn't get the whole image in, it was somehow locked so I could only see the left hand side. With your link, I can see the whole thing. So that blue curve is the actual curvature of the whole Earth over that mountain?
Originally posted by sonhouse That is pretty impressive! I saw that on APOD today but couldn't get the whole image in, it was somehow locked so I could only see the left hand side. With your link, I can see the whole thing. So that blue curve is the actual curvature of the whole Earth over that mountain?
No. It's the earth's shadow as it projects into space.
Edit: Obviously, you have to look for this at sunset (or sunrise, I suppose).
Edit2: I have a 1920 x 1080 monitor so I can see the whole pic full size. 🙂
22 Jun '10 21:52
9 yo takes pictures of curvature of the earth!:
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