From: Ian Goddard (Ian@Goddard.net)
Date: Sun Feb 21 1999 - 12:59:14 MST
At 09:49 AM 2/21/99 -0800, Spike Jones wrote:
>> IAN: Michael, can you point me to a physics
>> book that explains how the atmosphere can
>> enable an object to fall faster than the
>> same object dropped in a vacuum? ... A
>> few simple thought experiments confirm...
>
>imagine a fighter jet flying upside down straight
>and level at high speed. pilot pulls back on the
>stick, jet accelerates downward at several g's.
IAN: But your jet still has thrust. FL800 in the
CIA video shows each engine flame out just before
it reaches the peak of it's rocket-like climb,
so we're talking about a fall without thrust
and almost no initial horizontal velocity.
It seems that it may be possible at extreme
speeds in an example such as you observe to
temporary exceed vacuum fall rate, but at
the top of the CIA-depicted climb, FL800
was out of steam. Also, once the falling
object reaches terminal velocity, it could
not possibly keep pace with a vacuum fall.
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