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Posted by Dylan Parry on 02/16/07 09:18
the red dot wrote:
> which reminds me of the story of the americans who spent millions of dollars
> making a pen that worked in zero gravity, the russians just used a pencil.
Nope. The Russians didn't use pencils. Have you ever got a bit of pencil
in your eye? I can tell you that it isn't very nice. Now try writing in
zero-gravity with bits of graphite breaking off and floating around. A
nightmare to say the least.
The Russians used good-old-fashioned ballpoint pens, which work fine in
zero-gravity as they only rely on the flow of ink, which will occur
regardless of which way you hold a pen in space. Which is the opposite
of what happens on Earth, ie. hold the pen upside-down and gravity will
cause the ink to stop flowing. No gravity == no problem.
--
Dylan Parry
http://electricfreedom.org | http://webpageworkshop.co.uk
Programming, n: A pastime similar to banging one's head
against a wall, but with fewer opportunities for reward.
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