# If Kate Upton had done the Chris Hadfield water experiment would the result have been the same? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 26, 2014, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-kate-upton-had-done-the-chris-hadfield-water-experiment-would-the-result-have-been-the-same/682294 "2014-02-26T04:41:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-kate-upton-had-done-the-chris-hadfield-water-experiment-would-the-result-have-been-the-same/682294/1 "2014-02-26T04:41:02Z")
Inspired by the Kate-Upton-breasts-in-microgravity thread. If instead of cavorting in a bikini, she had done [this experiment](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MsHASky85cI), would the result have been the same as when Hadfield did it on the ISS? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-kate-upton-had-done-the-chris-hadfield-water-experiment-would-the-result-have-been-the-same/682294/2 "2014-02-26T05:19:10Z")
Wet t-shirt experiment? At least for the duration of micro-gravity, why not. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-kate-upton-had-done-the-chris-hadfield-water-experiment-would-the-result-have-been-the-same/682294/3 "2014-02-26T05:41:09Z")
If Upton had conducted the experiment, the result would have been “There was a washcloth in that video?” ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-kate-upton-had-done-the-chris-hadfield-water-experiment-would-the-result-have-been-the-same/682294/4 "2014-02-26T06:19:38Z")
You only get about half a minute of weightlessness at a time, so it might be difficult for her to get much done. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-kate-upton-had-done-the-chris-hadfield-water-experiment-would-the-result-have-been-the-same/682294/5 "2014-02-26T06:33:31Z")
Just as another reminder, you still experience about 90% of earth gravity at the ISS, i.e. if you stood on a tall pillar of unobtanium at ISS orbit, you’d weigh 90% what you do on the ground, just as you’d weigh about 100% of your ground weight when the airplane isn’t diving. The difference is the ISS continually misses the ground. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-kate-upton-had-done-the-chris-hadfield-water-experiment-would-the-result-have-been-the-same/682294/6 "2014-02-27T03:03:54Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > you still experience about 90% of earth gravity at the ISS … Well, the ISS experiences ~90% of Earth’s surface gravity, which is why it stays in Earth orbit rather than flying off toward, say, Jupiter. But if you are aboard the ISS, you experience zero gravity - as you would in any object that’s in freefall. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-kate-upton-had-done-the-chris-hadfield-water-experiment-would-the-result-have-been-the-same/682294/7 "2014-02-27T12:41:28Z")
At the height of the ISS, but stationary over the Earth, you experience .9 g. But the ISS isn’t stationary, it’s in orbit, and so it’s in zero g. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-kate-upton-had-done-the-chris-hadfield-water-experiment-would-the-result-have-been-the-same/682294/8 "2014-02-27T13:03:33Z")
following the link, it should be clear from the floating stuff that they’re experiencing little or no gravity. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-kate-upton-had-done-the-chris-hadfield-water-experiment-would-the-result-have-been-the-same/682294/9 "2014-02-27T13:11:53Z")
This is largely a semantic argument, but I’d say that you’re experiencing gravity while in freefall. You’re just not being smooshed against anything by it. The only way not to experience gravity is to be massless. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-kate-upton-had-done-the-chris-hadfield-water-experiment-would-the-result-have-been-the-same/682294/10 "2014-02-27T14:34:20Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > This is largely a semantic argument, but I’d say that you’re experiencing gravity while in freefall. You’re just not being smooshed against anything by it. The only way not to experience gravity is to be massless. It is more than just a semantic argument in that is one of the bases of general relativity – that there is no local way, even in principle, to tell the difference between being in empty space, far from any masses and being in free fall. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-kate-upton-had-done-the-chris-hadfield-water-experiment-would-the-result-have-been-the-same/682294/11 "2014-02-27T21:13:20Z")
And the result would have been the same if the experiment were done in the Vomit Comet, except that you’d have to work much more quickly, since that only gets you a minute or two of zero-G at a time.