On August 2nd, 1971, Dave Scott performed a live television demonstration of the hammer-feather drop test on the moon. Four hundred years earlier, Galileo had concluded that when a feather and a hammer are dropped from the same height in a vacuum, they would land at the same time. Just last week, the same test was done live on the Graham Norton Show by Tom Hanks, who is promoting the London exhibition ‘The Moonwalkers’ that he produced about the Apollo missions to the moon. However, Tom Hanks, being on earth and not in a vacuum, was not able to perfectly replicate the experiment.
Tom Hanks conducted his earthly experiment to demonstrate the magic of physics: what was not possible on Earth in the Graham Norton studio was easily accomplished by Apollo 15 astronaut Dave Scott on the Moon at Hadley-Appennine. As part of the mission, Dave Scott and his team had wanted to conduct a fun, interesting, and educational experiment. Today, it is one of the most watched videos concerning the Apollo 15 mission. Watch Dave Scott’s video at Emory’s Apollo 15 Learning Hub to learn more!
