"The Big Bang Theory" scene: Season 6, Episode 1
Plot: During a video call with his wife, Howard demonstrated the weightlessness of a pen in order to amuse her. float.
Scientific interpretation: This is a section that is easily overlooked. At first, American and former Soviet astronauts used pencils when performing space missions. However, in a weightless environment, graphite powder or broken pen tips would fly around, which may cause short circuits in instruments or cause fires.
To this end, a pen factory in Nevada, USA, developed a ballpoint pen that can be used in zero gravity, promoted it to NASA, and successfully obtained an order from the latter. In 2008, a space pen that launched with the Apollo 17 spacecraft was auctioned for a high price of US$23,900. However, ordinary space pens on the market can be bought for only US$15 to US$20.
Chinese Patented China Shenqi Space Pen
The space writing pen is an important equipment for space walks. The United States and the former Soviet Union have organized many scientific researchers and invested huge sums of money in its development. The China Astronaut Center has handed over key scientific and technological research tasks to China First Pencil Co., Ltd. The company's scientific researchers carried forward the spirit of overcoming difficulties and lived up to expectations, finally contributing the "Chinese Space Pen" to the world, which will be used by Chinese astronauts to write a magical stroke during the spacewalk when "Shenzhou 7" is launched. Record this historic moment.
The "Chinese Shenqi Space Pen" is a "special pen" adapted to astronauts' extravehicular writing based on space principles. It is the first pen in the history of China's aerospace industry to be used in an extravehicular environment. space pen on. Relying on its advantages in pen-making technology and with the cooperation of the China Astronaut Center, China First Pencil Co., Ltd. successfully developed a space writing pen, filling the gap in domestic aerospace technology and equipment and setting the stage for future Chinese participation. Space science and technology experiments provide writing tools. At present, this new technology has applied for a national patent.
For a long time, there has been such a story:
It is said that American astronauts are very depressed in space, and they always cannot write with pens and ballpoint pens under weightless conditions. American scientists spent X years and X amount of money (a recent expert who gave a speech at the Agricultural University has increased the amount to 10 billion US dollars) to finally develop a pen that can be used under weightless conditions. Meanwhile, Soviet cosmonauts kept using pencils in space (generally speaking, the audience would burst into good-natured laughter at this point).
Of course, there are many variations of this story, similar to viruses, repeated in different flavors. For example, this variant: NASA has spent a lot of effort to allow astronauts to write in space but has not succeeded because the requirements are too complicated. They must be able to write freely in a state of weightlessness, and they must be able to write while leaning up, etc. As a last resort, they solicited solutions from the society. Later, a German primary school student sent a package with only one line: "Have you tried this?" Someone from the NASA opened it and saw that it was a pack of pencils.
On the surface, this story has two main functions. One is to promote flexible thinking and use simple technical methods to solve problems; the other is to laugh at Americans for their superstition of high technology, wasting money and making things worse. It’s complicated, but the Russians are the masters at solving problems.
Unfortunately, the story is just a story after all, and it is very ridiculous.