Thursday, September 26, 2002
Zorb
Zorb.
You see, that's a person in the middle of this big ball. He's got about 700 mm of air between him and the ground - that's about 2 feet for you metrically challenged folks - and this air cushion keeps him safe as he hurtles down the side of a hill at speeds of up to 50 kilometres per hour. The idea is that as the ball rolls around, the person inside (known as "the Zorbonaut") becomes pinned to the inside, just like water inside a bucket being spun around your head. (My physics teacher from many years ago claimed that this was due to a force called Inertia, but us less enlightened folks refer to it as centrifugal force - See Mr Saunders I was listening - it was just my eyes that were closed.)
You see, that's a person in the middle of this big ball. He's got about 700 mm of air between him and the ground - that's about 2 feet for you metrically challenged folks - and this air cushion keeps him safe as he hurtles down the side of a hill at speeds of up to 50 kilometres per hour. The idea is that as the ball rolls around, the person inside (known as "the Zorbonaut") becomes pinned to the inside, just like water inside a bucket being spun around your head. (My physics teacher from many years ago claimed that this was due to a force called Inertia, but us less enlightened folks refer to it as centrifugal force - See Mr Saunders I was listening - it was just my eyes that were closed.)
