November 06, 2008
King's Ridge Christian School technology specialist, Adele McMurry, experienced the ride of a lifetime as a recent participant in the Northrop Grumman Weightless Flights of Discovery program.
The program, hosted by Zero G, allows school teachers to experience an environment of zero gravity without leaving the Earth's atmosphere. McMurry was one of 30 Georgia teachers chosen to participate in the trip on Oct. 7. The teachers' flight left from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
"This was the most amazing experience I have ever had," exclaimed McMurry. "I was able to fly through the air like Superwoman."
The zero gravity environment is accomplished with a specially equipped 727 jet that climbs to 35,000 feet then, through parabolic flight maneuvers, dives 10,000 feet. The experience of weightlessness lasts for approximately 30 seconds and the jet, called 'G Force One,' makes 15 dives.
"Weightlessness was a very calming feeling, but it was also very strange to have absolutely no control of your motions," said McMurry. "You have to move very slowly because any motion continues on its own path until something else hits it and makes it change direction, which is Newton's third law."
The teachers spent months working with their students to prepare science projects for the weightless environment. All teachers were encouraged to bring science projects on the flight, but the trip was bound by FAA regulations, which meant that prohibited items, like liquids, were supplied by the flight crew.
One of McMurry's experiments involved the creation of an accelerometer with a bottle of water. In a zero gravity environment, the water proved that inertia is a constant forward motion; something that is difficult to prove in a science classroom bound by the law of gravity.
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