I recently read an Edgar Allan Poe story about a man who went to the moon in a hot air balloon. It was fiction. It was a good story because it was so unbelievable. It was magical like an animal costume or Houdini. It was absurd.
I was curious to see if the story about the lawn chair with balloons tied to it was a myth. Apparently, a man named Larry Walters tied a bunch of weather balloons to a lawn chair & then sailed to an altitude of 16,000 feet over L.A. (3 miles) before shooting the balloons with a b.b. gun to return to Earth. Apparently this event is true, it was even documented by the FAA. The Mythbusters even proved that it can be done. My only question is why? If only Edgar Allan Poe would see us now.
1 comment:
Wow, the physicist and mother in me just reads about the lawnchair/balloon thing and shakes my head in total disbelief. Did he not realize all of the things that could have caused him to plummet to his death?
I'd make a lousy scientist.
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