This Moon thing seems to have gone on far too long -- but only a few posts
have addressed the original question. Larry Smith gave a helpful response
and maybe one or two others contributed a bit, I don't remember. Here is
the original question:
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I am currently teaching about the History of the Space Program. Many of my
students viewed that TV special on Fox 59 last week and now are arguing
that we did not really land on the moon. I do not have what I call 'good
proof' that it was not a hoax to counter what that show said in regard to:
the different direction of shadows
the American flag was waving in one of the clips they showed
and finally the show said that the astronauts needed to have 6 feet
thick steel to protect them from the radiation.
I can tell them other evidence of proof but cannot sufficiently counter the
clips and examples they showed. Can anyone help with facts to counter this
stupid show? Thanks, Barbara
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Here is how I would reply (and I will not address the above grammar):
First - I have attended many scientific meetings and never have I heard the
word "stupid" used --- harbored in one's mind perhaps, maybe murmured but
not spoken. ANY formal scientific presentation deserves a little respect
and analysis. So I clearly would not use the word "stupid" to the
class. I would take this magnificent opportunity to teach some physics and
how science in general is conducted.
Middle School students are bright and usually articulate. At least the MS
kids were when I taught them for a year in the distant past.
I would begin with a group discussion of the program to see what the class
had absorbed from the program. I would list the topics on the board. I
would list pending questions that needed to be resolved. I would then
assign some of the questions to volunteers. And to the entire class
library and WWW browsing -- and trust that they would at least come up with
the site suggested here on this list and maybe a book or two.
During the discussion surely the issue of the motivation of NASA should
emerge and whether the government is usually reliable or had
fudged history in the past. This would bring up the movie about the fake
war which likely they all had seen (and I can never remember the title of)
I would alert their history teacher to chime in at some appropriate
moment. Little Jimmy Green is in the back of the room and says that he
doesn't care much if there is a hoax or not -- he gets the assignment to
rent the war-hoax movie from Blockbuster and give a report (because he is
abysmally poor I would slip him a couple of bucks).
The next day we go over the points of the web site, etc and try to compare
the quality of the arguments of the site and of the FOX program and of any
books located. We see the need to review the program so little Ricky and
Billy are appointed to find an appropriate address and to
write/phone/e-mail FOX to see if a tape could be had or maybe someone in
town/school/local college has a copy of the tape A decision is made as to
which of the criticisms we could investigate via our own experimentation.
Timmy says that he can borrow a vacuum pump and bell jar to investigate the
feather thing. We discuss how accurate this comparison would be. Full
Moon is that night so Hugh and Leigh are chosen to report on shadow detail
and Joey and Bobby are selected to approximate/calculate/find out/search on
the web/library the relative brightness of a Full Earth compared to a Full
Moon -- Georgie will investigate the concept of albedo.
Paul and Ray want to see if they can produce non-parallel shadows from a
point source of light and will speculate whether the Sun should be
considered a point source. Chuckie and Herbie think that they remember
that NASA put springs of some sort in the flag to make it wave. They will
search in the library and also try to reproduce the effect.
Johnny says that he will research whether the FOX program claims that the
alleged hoax applies to all of the Apollo missions or only the first.