Debris Tiles Surviving Heat Atmosphere Reentry
The debris from the shuttle. On reentry, a shuttle experiences tremendous heat. That is the reason for the special tiles. Some of the pieces of debris that were found were materials that would be quickly destroyed if exposed to that much heat. How did those materials make it to the ground without burning up?
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This Week's Experiment - #310 The Shuttle Tragedy
I thought for quite a while trying to decide how appropriate it was to do an
experiment about this week's shuttle tragedy. I have received several
science questions about the news coverage, and I thought it was something
that people would find interesting. I worried that it was too soon, that all
of you would still be too sad to be interested in doing a science experiment
about this terrible event. Then I remembered that the people who lost their
lives were scientists. They dedicated their lives to the wonders and joys of
science. Once I realized that, I knew that it would be OK.
The most common question I have received is about the debris from the
shuttle. On reentry, a shuttle experiences tremendous heat. That is the
reason for the special tiles. Some of the pieces of debris that have been
found were materials that would be quickly destroyed if exposed to that much
heat. How did those materials make it to the ground without burning up? To
investigate that, you will need:
paper
a ball
First, lets look at what causes the tremendous heat that the shuttle
encounters as it enters the atmosphere. Many sources say that it is due to
friction with the air. Rub your hand together quickly and you will feel some
heat produced by friction. While that sounds good, actually the heating of
the shuttle (and objects such as meteors) is due to the air in front being
squeezed. When air is compressed, it gets hotter. The next time that you
add air to the tires in your car or pump up a basketball, feel the valve stem
as soon as you finish. It will feel quite warm. The more you squeeze the
air; the hotter it gets.
The shuttle is traveling very fast as it enters the atmosphere. It is
pushing its way through the air. If you have ever held your hand out the
window as your car drove down the highway, you have felt your hand pushing
through the air. The same happens with the shuttle. Some of the air is
pushed aside, and some of the air is pushed ahead of the shuttle. This
squeezes the air in front. The faster an object is moving; the more the air
in front will be compressed. The more it is squeezed; the hotter it gets.
With the shuttle, it gets up to over 2300 degrees F (1260 C). This hot air
then heats the parts of the shuttle that are pushing against it.
There is a good side to this though. As the shuttle pushes and compresses
the air, the air pushes back on the shuttle, slowing it down. By pointing
the nose of the shuttle upwards, the entire bottom of the shuttle is pushing
against the air, making a very effective braking system. The down side is
that the entire underside of the shuttle gets VERY hot in the process.
Special tiles are used to protect the shuttle from that tremendous heat.
This Saturday morning, something went terribly wrong. We do not know what
yet, but scientists hope to use the debris from the shuttle to help figure it
out. How could that debris survive the tremendous heat of reentry? Why
didn't it burn up?
Go outside and find an area where you have plenty of room. Pick up a ball
and throw it across the yard. Be sure not to hit anything breakable, such as
windows or younger brothers. Notice how far the ball went. Now pick up a
sheet of paper and throw it just as hard as you threw the ball. Did it go as
far?
No. The paper was slowed very quickly by the air ahead of it. As the paper
pushed against the air, the air pushed back to slow the paper, just as it
does with the shuttle. The paper has a large surface, so it pushes against a
lot of air. It is also not very dense, so it does not take much of a push to
slow it down. The ball is a lot denser, so it takes a lot more push from the
air ahead to slow it down. It is also round, so it has less surface area in
front and less air to push out of the way. If you crumple the sheet of paper
into a ball, it will go farther, although is still does not go nearly as far
as the ball.
Light debris with a large surface, such as the uniform patch that was found,
would be slowed quickly, just as the paper was. That would let it reach the
ground without burning up. Also, these less dense pieces of debris would not
travel as far, just as your bits of paper did not travel as far across the
yard as the pebbles. It is important for the investigators to know exactly
where each piece was found, as that location could help figure out what
happened. If you are in the debris area and you see something that might be
a piece of the shuttle, please leave where it is and report it immediately.
Have a marvelous week.
These experiments are from Robert Krampf - The Happy Scientist
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