You just don't know (because who's going to tell you?) that when you leave Earth, travel outside its gravitational reach, hundreds and hundreds of everyday things — stuff you've never had to think about — will change. Like ... oh, how about a wet washcloth?
Two high school students in Nova Scotia, Kendra Lemke and Meredith Faulkner, asked Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield (who is orbiting the planet right now) what it would be like to dip a washcloth in water (they suggested he clump it into a bottle, then pull it out) and squeeze it.
On Earth, a really wet washcloth, squeezed tight, will drip, right?
Up on the International Space Station, wet washcloths don't drip. What they do is like nothing I'd imagined.
(As a radio guy, I was SO aware of Chris's floating microphone. ... All these years, if I put a mike on my desk, it stays there. As much as I'd like to put a mike on nothing, I hadn't considered what a headache that would be. His mike won't stay put. Plus, Chris won't stay put. Who knew that the pull of the Earth is so radio-friendly?)
Thanks to Jason Kottke and his blog for noticing this.
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