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>> Jeff: Hi, I'm Jeff Briggs from NASA Glenn Research Center
in Cleveland, Ohio and I'm an aerospace engineer working
on the Space Flight Program for NASA.
We're here at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky,
Ohio for math and science week; this is where students from all
over the Midwest come here to learn about some
of the ways math and science are used in everyday life
and they get to have some fun and ride the rides as well.
I actually got to come here when I was in high school to go
to physics day and ended up with a Graduate Degree in physics
so obviously they're doing something right.
Amusement parks are a great place to learn about some
of the ways that the equations you learn
in the classroom are used in real life.
For example, if you look at the Power Tower behind me here some
of the things the rider's experience are microgravity
and G Forces these are things that engineers
on the Space Flight Program use every day in their jobs.
So let's take a ride and find out for ourselves, come on.
So here we are in the Power Tower.
The Power Tower was built in 1998 for $10 million
and since it's been open 15 million people have ridden it.
I think it gives about 1 million rides every summer.
So the Power Tower is about 300 feet tall
and I'm gonna be launched straight up at 50 miles an hour
to a height of 240 feet.
Thank you sir.
>> Yup
>> Jeff: So what we're gonna experience
on this ride is what's called G Forces, so I'm gonna get shot up
and experience about 4 G Forces;
this means I'm gonna feel 4 times heavier
than I would in normal gravity.
>> Clear
>> Jeff: This is really close to the same thing that happens
to astronauts when they're launched up on a rocket except
on the rocket launch I think it's about 2 to 3 G Forces.
So this is the same feeling as you get when you're in the car
and someone hits the gas and you get pushed back in your seat,
so I'm gonna get slammed right down in my seat as soon
as we get launched up.
So I think we're about ready to go.
Alright, here we go.
[ Background noise ]
>> Jeff: Now, on the way back
down we're gonna experience just the opposite G Forces;
this is called microgravity and you're gonna feel lighter
than you would under normal gravity.
So when I got -- fall down I was falling down at the same rate
as this ride and got launched out of my seat;
this is the same thing that astronauts feel when they're
up in the Space Station except in my case I'm falling
down toward the earth and astronauts
in the Space Station are falling down around the earth
and the astronauts are falling
around at the same rate as the Space Station.
So when you see astronauts
on the Space Station they're floating around in the air
like they don't weigh anything
which is what happens in microgravity.
So hope you're having a good day
and maybe sometime you can try this
at your local amusement park.
Title: www.nasa.gov/glenn