What's The Maximum Speed A Falling Object Can Achieve?

[sandyRoe]

Flicking through FB the other evening I saw a photo of a weapon from WW1.  It was like a large dart designed to be dropped from an aeroplane.  You'd guess it would be more miss than hit, but if it did manage to hit someone could it have proved fatal?

[bhg481]

Terminal velocity depends on the shape of the falling body but, from memory, is about 120mph for a person. A dart-shaped object falling from an aeroplane could certainly kill someone.

[Khandro]

There was an early 20th cent. German writer (cant remember his name at the moment) who longed to go to Paris. When he finally did so, on the first day he walked along the Les Champs-Elysées and a branch broke off tree, landed on his head and killed him. It can't have been moving very fast.

I like the story because it has no moral whatsoever.

[sandyRoe]

Could the moral be, Be careful what you wish for?

[ichkeria]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96d%C3%B6n_von_Horv%C3%A1th

[Khandro]

ichi ; von Horváth, yes that's him, thanks

[Peter Pedant]

Used by the Germans on Lundy 1917 - In fact - there was archive footage a day or so ago, on zeppelins - series begins Fri etc

and there was footage of a a sort of Beer bottle crate being released ( bottles only) - and I thought - god is this archive footage of darts from the gt War.

I am SURE there is one in the IWM  -  The first bomb evva dropped on Lundy is somewhere there - ( I had to think about that one)

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1232211

At school, a pupils mother had witnessed s death - basically they bleed to death.

 

[Peter Pedant]

Terminal vel - depends on the shape. A betrayed young lady in 1880 jumped from the Eiffel Tower and was outraged to land at the bottom unhurt ( parachute principle)

WHEREAS - those jumping from Twin towers were in excess of 200 mph. ALL the clothes of everyone were ripped off on the way down in the slipstream and the result was (lumps of meat)

someone asked

[Peter Pedant]

Aeschylus I wont tell you who he was 

According to legend, Aeschylus met a tragic death: one day, an eagle that had just caught a tortoise mistook Aeschylus's bald head for a shiny rock, and accidentally killed the author by dropping the animal onto him.

[ToraToraTora]

depends on atmosphere density and object mass. eg The world record skydive from 128000 feet broke the sound barrier in the thin upper atmosphere.

[Peter Pedant]

Newton - F =ma  is modified to F - kv2 = ma - that is the resistive force varies with the square of the veolocity it has

( gives a term vel of root f/k) - note to self: majority of ABers cant add ! - and you adjust k to taste.

[ K varry leedol, then v very high and so on]  - same equations as ball-bearing falling froo oil

[retrocop]

I believe the article you describe was a 'Flechette' I thought objects falling travelled at 22feet per sec per sec.Maths was not my best subject.

[retrocop]

         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flechette

[bhg481]

The mass of the falling body is irrelevant; all that matters is the shape of the body and the density of the medium it is falling through (Galileo's Tower of Pisa experiment). PP's K x vsquared term allows for the drag.

In a vacuum a body accelerates increasing its speed by 32ftper second every second.

[ToraToraTora]

the mass is not relevant in a vacuum it is in the atmosphere.

[Peter Pedant]

oh my god crucify him - he is using FPS imperial engineering units! but his hands off ! take his slide rule away and burn the log book

[Peter Pedant]

I automatically adjusted things for you Retro

I retro-adjusted them !  haw haw haw

[wolf63]

Sandy, this may interest you and your furry overlord.

 

😁

[bhg481]

TTT //the mass is not relevant in a vacuum it is in the atmosphere.//

Read your physics books and believe Galileo. Mass is not relevant, coefficient of drag is.

[ToraToraTora]

ok all I'm saying is that take away the atmosphere and mass is totally irelevant but drop two identical spheres one lead one wood in the atmosphere then the mass will have an effect even though the drag coefficient is the same. Gallileo used the LTOP to test this. He did know that mass is irelevant in a vacuum but was unable to prove it but he did get close with spheres of different materials. It was later proved on the moon with the hammer and feather drop.

[ToraToraTora]

...... and no need to be so condescending, I'd eat you for breakfast at physics me old china.