Scenario: your crash-test dummy is more or less upright on a surfboard that has a rocket attached to it.
Observation: when you fire the rocket, the board+rocket+dummy system does a back-flip.
Which of the following must be true?
- The rocket is too powerful.
- The thrust vector is below the center of mass.
Right... so, for your next test, you:
- Use a cluster of little rockets with lower peak thrust.
- Replace the dummy with a set of flat weights strapped directly to the board.
Right: both. So of course it doesn't do a back-flip, but the test no longer bears any relation to the problem at hand.
And that's meant to be a science program....
Update: oh, this just gets better. They go and call the rocket-surfer story "busted" on the basis that their one live test run didn't quite achieve the results claimed in the story. Uh, guys? Once again: just because you didn't do it in a week, and a single live test, doesn't mean someone else hasn't done it ever.
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