Re: Fish tank in orbit?

[Jim Ealy <Jim_Ealy@RCDS.RYE.NY.US>]

PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu writes:
> g so you can transport the fish home
> alive.  Since the fish can exist in this bag for
> a relatively long time, I assume that the fish
> would have the same kind of experience when
> her transparent bag in placed in a space capsule.
> Since such fish have an almost neutral buoyancy
> they should be able to remain suspended in the
> center of the space bag with out any problem.


There is a small demo device (Sargent Welch, cat # WLOO922) (I refuse to
type the (mis)name of the device)  that you can use to simulate this
"space" experiment.  Two one liter jars are attached to a an axel at about
30 cm from the center of revolution.  Two small fishing (interesting)
"bobbers" are inside.  When the device is rotated, the "bobbers" move
opposite to what MOST students expect.  My students reading these emails
decided to replace the water with aquarium water and two "fighting fish."
one in each jar  They (Siamese fight fish) are air gulpers, that is they
capture air in their mouth and absorb/exchange O2 and CO2 in that manner.
They went to the inside part (relative up) of the jar when spun, seems
they use acceleration to determine "up" ? Since our fish need to know
where the air is...............

jim ealy
education by demonstration