Cosmic Queries – Geek Time! with Charles Liu

About This Episode

Could you play Quidditch on Jupiter? Javelin on Mars? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly answer fan questions about low-gravity physics, the weight of Thor’s hammer, aerodynamics and more with physicist Charles Liu.

We explore games in Star Trek like Parrises Squares and other geeky games. How much does Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, weigh? How high could a high jumper jump on the moon? We break down gravitational acceleration and do some physics calculations.

Could you play a sport on Jupiter or Saturn? Find out what it would be like to play Quidditch on Jupiter. Would you be able to shoot an arrow farther on the moon? Could you throw something into orbit? We discuss golfing at high altitude and the effects of air pressure and humidity on the movement of the ball.

Will we ever reach a point where we can’t create any more world records? Could we just start modifying people? We also get into the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. What challenges will they have to watch out for? How will they work around the heat? All that and more on another grab bag Cosmic Queries!

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