• Question: If you took a sand timer into space would it work

    Asked by Amy to Andrea, Charlie 🚀, Col Op, Kirsty, Vinita on 14 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Charles Laing

      Charles Laing answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      Hi Amy,

      In a word, no!

      A sand timer works on the principle of grains of sand falling from the top to the bottom and in space there is no top and bottom. Just as the astronauts float in space so do the grains of sand inside the timer meaning they stay where they are and do not move up or down.

      Charlie 😀🚀

    • Photo: Andrea Boyd

      Andrea Boyd answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      Nope – the sand would just float around both halves randomly inside the timer 🙂

    • Photo: Columbus Operations

      Columbus Operations answered on 23 Jun 2016:

      You could make it work – if you put it inside a centrifuge to create artificial gravity!

      For experiments we use centrifuges to be able to define a gravity level that we want to examine. Also often we have a set of samples of which some are in the centrifuge at 1g (Earth’s gravitation level) and others at 0g in microgravity, so that you can compare both samples afterwards.

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