Drop tower
A drop tower is a tower in which drop tests are carried out for the purpose of creating brief weightlessness (up to ten seconds duration) . Since air resistance would lead to undesirable forces that would disturb the weightlessness effect , the free fall of the drop capsule takes place in an evacuated tube. The drop capsule lands “softly” at the foot of the drop tube in a container with styrofoam balls . In order to extend the simulation of weightlessness, drop towers often have a catapult device which catapults the capsule upwards in the drop tube. The best-known example in Germany is the Bremen drop tower .
application
- Preliminary investigations of space-based experiments, for example investigations into planet formation
- basic physical research, e.g. B. to check the validity of the general theory of relativity and the principle of universality of free fall ( equivalence principle )
- Investigations of flow processes in liquids
- Materials research
- earlier also for the production of shotgun pellets, see scrap tower
- occasionally as an attraction in amusement parks
See also
Web links
Commons : Drop towers - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Fallturm - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
