Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Playing Ball in Space

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the hail-mary-2010 dept.

oo7tushar writes "Although most experiments in space seem simple they have profound results. Take this for example, astronauts trying to catch a ball in space. What's so hard about that? Nothing much really, down here on Earth. In space it's a completely different story. Here on earth our eyes see the ball and our brain anticipates it's movement according to gravity. In space the brain continues to anticpate gravity but unlike motion sickness (which is adapted to within days), astronauts continue to anticipate the path of a ball for 15 days (after which they start to show progress). What are the ramifications? The brain must have some sort of internal gravitation model."

6 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing special... by tom_newton · · Score: 4, Insightful

    about us having a "gravitation model" in our heads.
    Surely it's just called "experience"?

    --
    Tom Newton
  2. What a bunch of crap by yatest5 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What are the ramifications? The brain must have some sort of internal gravitation model."

    Er, no, maybe it has some capacity to learn the way things move, which surprisingly, after 30-odd years of the same observed behaviour, proves a little hard to unlearn.

    The ramifications? Well, people are going to, like have to, like, train for the new environment! Quick, call the cops!

    --
    • Mod parent up! [a] by Anonymous Coward (Score:5) Thurs, June 31, @13:37
    1. Re:What a bunch of crap by wickidpisa · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It was assumed that this was due to our "excellent" hand-eye co-ordination, but this experiment seems to show that instead we're predicting the motion in a gravity field. It shouldn't have taken 15 days for the astronauts to learn to adjust if they were really following the movement of the ball.

      You are jumping to conclusions there. Even if you are right about the ability to catch being inherent rather than learned (I have doubts that it is. Don't believe everything you read.) it would have little bearing on this experiment. To test what you claim is true, you would need to have people who have not been catching under earth's gravity for the past X years try to catch in zero G. It is entirely possible that catching is inherent, yet because these scientists have been exposed to it for so long, they have also learned what to expect, and that may be why it took them longer to re-learn to catch. Someone with no experience catching under gravity may have been able to learn it more quickly.

  3. illusion by alanak · · Score: 2, Insightful

    isn't this more or less just like another optical illusion. Our brains are "wired" or just merely used to seeing things one way, so when something suddenly goes wrong, our brain simply pretends everything's normal. Internal gravity mechanism? hmmph, just call it millions of years living on a planet with constant gravity.

  4. Re:What a ridiculous notion by iolaire_in_swe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "I suspect a well practiced juggler could adjust to the diffences in Space fairly quickly."

    I doubt that: the balls wouldn't come back to you.

    :P

  5. How long did it take you to learn in gravity? by weave · · Score: 3, Insightful
    How long did it take you to learn to catch a ball on Earth?

    My father was never one who was into sports until one day when he felt guilty I guess and bought me a mitt when I was 8 and took me out back to play catch.

    Guess what, I sucked. I don't know how long it took me to learn but I tell you what, once in a while someone tosses a set of keys to me across the room and I still can't catch em half the time.

    So I don't see why this is a big deal. Now if it was a story about the difficulties of re-learning how to have sex in space, then I'd be interested! (No, my dad didn't teach me that either, thank god)