Saturday 1 March 2014

News: "How Sports Illustrated shot Kate Upton in a bikini and zero gravity"

For the last news post, I thought I should do something special. And when I say special... You know me, expect something REALLY special to come ;D

This term I've focused a lot on games in my yoursays and my news posts were all about scientific topics, except the Whatsapp-Facebook dilem fusion. These science news featured different topics, a lot about astronomy and the origin of our Earth and the last one covered a little neuroscience.
Sadly though, some people don't appreciate the advantatges science grants us. The last news item is dedicated to those people, mostly the male fraction. I'm sure you will find two convincing arguments that science is amazing in this post.



I don't know if you usually read the original news articles or only my post ... Or only the news article (I hope not), but this time I liked the writing of the journalist a lot, so it's worth clicking right HERE! (or any other point of this unnecessarily long hyperlink)

I'm really sorry, girls. I think I'm making you suffer a lot this time.


So, a fashion magazine called Sports' Illustrated publishes a special issue on an annual basis: the swimsuit issue. (Hmmm.. I'm sounding as if I were an expert on that stuff... I don't like that. I'm only using information from the news article, really!)
This time they decided to do something special as well (probably there's a crazy German working for them). I don't know about you, but I can't quite imagine that brainstorming session:

Boss: "Alright guys, we need a special feature for this years' swimsuit issue. Any ideas?"
Assumedly crazy German: "Zero G?"
Boss: "BRILLIANT!"

Zero G refers to the sensation of zero gravity, as if you didn't weigh at all. The Zero Gravity Corporation from the United States organises special flights where people can experience the feeling of zero G thanks to the parabolic trajectory of the aircraft:


Usually, one of those flights includes 15 parabolas. 12 simulate weightlessness (0G), 2 make you feel as if you were on the moon (G/6, a sixth of the Earth's gravity) and 1 that lets you prepare for your one-way trip to the Mars (G/3, a third part of Earth's gravity).
Each state of reduced gravity lasts for approximately 30 seconds.

What about wind tunnels now, huh? Not that great anymore, right? (yeah, I haven't tried them out by myself yet...)

If you're considering to go on one of these flights... Bear in mind that around two out of every three participants.. Well. They can greet their breakfast from that morning once again. And that's the reason why these flights are also known as "vomit comets".

Please imagine that situation ocurring in zero gravity. Majestic.

And there's another thing to remember, please have a look at the parabola diagram once again. Note the indication before and after reaching zero gravity: 1.8g.
That means that, after flailing around like an idiot (although a happy idiot, I admit), you are accelerated against the interior walls of the plane with almost two times Earth's gravity. In other words, if you weigh 70 kilograms, you are pushed against the wall in a free fall as if you almost weighed 140 kilograms. So it would be better that either you or the walls were padded. In this case, both the walls and the model were well padded. If you know wha Bah, retoric questions aside, you know perfectly what I mean. There's a comment on the article related to this that I liked a lot:

Kate Upton smashing into the floor of the plane with 2gs...  terrible, had I been there I would have volunteered to stay under her and break her fall


Sorry for appearingly destroying your dreams of zero gravity flights in such a draconian manner. In fact, that's not correct. If a supermodel can smile into a camera while experiencing zero G, you would withstand it as well, I'm sure.





And now with all seriousness, my opinion about the beauty industry, models, etc. actually coincides with the article writer's. BUT. At least more people got to hear about the possibility of zero G flights, a cool product of science. And that's a positive point. Additionally, I do respect the model's capability of posing in front of the camera with these circumstances. I don't even look good in photos with normal gravity.


This time I've got the feeling I can make a good use of the new vocabulary I've learnt:
padded
flail
draconian

No comments:

Post a Comment