Brian Cox shows us how a bowling ball and feather can fall at the same rate

We all know what will happen - but it's still fascinating to watch

Without air and other interfering factors, gravity affects objects in the same way, meaning both objects will fall at the same rate (YouTube )

If you drop a heavy bowling ball and a feather at the same time, which will hit the ground first?

As part of BBC Two's Human Universe, Brian Cox and a team demonstrated how, with the absence of air, a feather will hit the ground at the same time as a bowling ball.

Ever inventive, Cox decided to use Nasa’s Space Simulation Chamber at the Space Power Facility in Ohio, home to the biggest vacuum in the world.

The Simulation Chamber replicates the same conditions experienced in outer space. Nasa uses the cylinder to test out its spacecrafts.

Without air and other interfering factors, gravity affects objects in the same way, meaning both objects will fall towards the Earth at the same rate.

Cox also carried out the experiment without the vacuum turned on to demonstrate how feathers will fall at a much slower rate because of air resistance.

Human Universe is a five part series on BBC Two.