In principle, there is no researcher would happen to pull one of their tools down. Normally scientists are careful experiments are their instruments and apparatus. And because these are usually very sensitive and expensive. However, from the tip of a tall tower dropped a tool that is usually fixed in a laboratory and used to generate Bose Einstein condensates. I dropped 146 meters.
A Bose Einstein condensate is a state of matter in which all atoms have the same energy to a very low temperature. This gas is so cold that all the atoms act as a single particle. This state of matter can only be explained with the help of quantum mechanics and has no analogue in classical physics. However, generating this state of matter is quite complicated. In this particular case, scientists used about Theodor Hänsch of rubidium atoms and cool a gas got done for the atoms to less than -273 ° C, very close to zero temperature absoute. After 10,000 atoms trapped in a magnetic field with the help of lasers. Just these atoms form a Bose Einstein condensate. In comparison, an empty cup contains 10 21 air particles, 1 with 21 zeros. In other words, many more.
be bothered to adapt the instrument to be able to throw almost 150 meters so you can observe the effect of weightlessness on the atoms. In a laboratory near the machine always influences the severity measure. In free fall, however, the atoms do not feel the gravitational field. Since the instrument in the laboratory was rather cumbersome, scientists had to minimize it over: vacuum chamber in which there is Bose Einstein condensate with necessary pumps, lasers, electronics and batteries, etc.. Now everything fits into a cylinder of two meters and a diameter of 80 cm. In the chart below you see the tower and capsule:
image: Science
There is also a video of one of the fall of the capsule. At the end comes in a container filled with plastic balls to soften the impact. This braking slows the capsule with an equivalent of 50 times the earth's gravitational acceleration.
Although the results presented in the publication are nothing revolutionary, the experiment looks promising. Testing the effects of gravity on quantum systems such as Bose Einstein condensate can clarify the boundary that still exists between the mechanical quantum theory and general relativity the .
Tv Zoest, N. Gaaloul, Y. Singh, H. Ahlers, W. Herr, ST Seidel, W. Ertmer, E. Rasel, M. Eckart, E. Kajari, S. Arnold, G. Nandi, WP Schleich, R. Walser, A. Vogel, K. Sengstock, K. Bongs, W. Lewoczko-Adamczyk, M. Schiemangk, T. Schuldt, A. Peters, T. Könemann, H. Munting, C. Lämmerzahl, H. Dittus, T. Steinmetz, TW Hänsch, J. Reichel, Bose-Einstein Condensation in Microgravity , Science, June 18, 2010
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