1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000 Dr. D said he was going to meet us here at Mosey. 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:10,000 Look, there he is, riding a bicycle on a tightrope. 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,000 How is he doing that? 4 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,000 Hey, Dr. D, how do you keep from falling? 5 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:18,000 The laws of physics make it impossible for me to fall. 6 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:22,000 The huge counterweight below makes all the difference. 7 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:24,000 Are you sure you can trust those laws all the time? 8 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:26,000 Don't worry about me. 9 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:30,000 I'll meet you in the hurricane room as soon as I get off the bicycle. 10 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:41,000 I've never been in a hurricane before. 11 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:43,000 Are you sure this is safe? 12 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:45,000 Of course it's safe. 13 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:48,000 In here, we'll feel one of the most tremendous forces of nature. 14 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,000 It will only be a minimal hurricane, but at 74 miles per hour, 15 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:53,000 it will still be quite an experience. 16 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:55,000 Here we go. 17 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:10,000 Wow, that was really amazing. 18 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:13,000 Are you sure that was just a minimal hurricane? 19 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:14,000 You bet. 20 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:19,000 Now, it's estimated that a really major hurricane with 148 mile-an-hour winds, 21 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:21,000 or twice what you just experienced, 22 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:25,000 can produce 250 times the property damage of a minimal hurricane. 23 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:27,000 Wow, that's a lot of energy. 24 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:32,000 Dr. Lyons told us the sun evaporates water and provides energy for the hurricane. 25 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:34,000 Yes, and the energy is given to the hurricane 26 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,000 when the evaporated water condenses into raindrops. 27 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,000 It turns out, if you condense just one liter of water, 28 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:45,000 it will give up enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 11 hours. 29 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:50,000 But an average hurricane will condense 20 trillion liters of water in a day, 30 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:53,000 to 20 followed by 12 zeros. 31 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,000 Wow, that's way too big a number for me to comprehend. 32 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:02,000 That's as much energy as all the world's electrical generating plants produce in 200 days. 33 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:04,000 Wow, now I'm really impressed. 34 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:06,000 Hurricanes have a lot of energy. 35 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:10,000 Let me show you something else about hurricanes that's pretty interesting. 36 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:14,000 It turns out that hurricanes in the northern hemisphere all have a counterclockwise rotation. 37 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:15,000 All of them? 38 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:16,000 That's right. 39 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:19,000 It's because the hurricane is a low-pressure region. 40 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:21,000 When the air in the higher-pressure region around it rushes in, 41 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:24,000 it gets bent to the right because of the rotation of the earth. 42 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:27,000 This causes the counterclockwise rotation of the hurricane. 43 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:28,000 I don't get it. 44 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:31,000 How would the rotation of the earth make any difference? 45 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:33,000 We just happen to have a very interesting device here at the museum 46 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,000 that will help us understand how it works. 47 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:39,000 Let's have each of you sit on opposite ends of the board, and I'll give you a spin. 48 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:41,000 Hope you don't get too dizzy. 49 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:48,000 Now, Bianca, toss the ball over to Catherine. 50 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:52,000 It didn't even come close. 51 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:54,000 Try it again. 52 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:00,000 It curved to the right after I threw it. 53 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:03,000 The ball appeared to curve for the same reasons the winds are bent to the right 54 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:05,000 when they rush in toward the center of a hurricane. 55 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:09,000 It's called the Coriolis effect, and it exists in any rotating system. 56 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:11,000 I see the ball traveling in a straight line, 57 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:14,000 but as you see it on the rotating board, it really is curving. 58 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:16,000 Wow, this is so much fun. 59 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:18,000 I could sit on this all day. 60 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:20,000 Not me. I'm getting dizzy. 61 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:22,000 I need to get off this thing. 62 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:24,000 If you like conducting experiments, 63 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:27,000 you need to check out Dr. D's lab on the NASA Wi-Fi's website.