Can you break sound barrier falling from sky?
Author: admin Category: 5
Supposedly the guy that jumped from a balloon from over a 100 thousand feet broke the sound barrier falling at about 1100 feet per second about 1960; how come sky divers do not come close to that rate of falling?
It was Capt Joseph Kittenger that jumped from a balloon at 102,800 feet in 1960. He reached a speed of 988 km/hr which is 90% the speed of sound - at that altitide.
Sky divers don’t reach anywhere near that speed, as they reach what is called "terminal velocity". The terminal velocity of a falling body occurs during free fall when the body experiences zero acceleration. The upward force of air resistance will eventually balance the falling body’s weight. It will continue to fall at aconstant velocity known as the terminal velocity.
Bear in mind when looking at speeds reached by skydivers, that they vary depending on the body position of the skydiver. The traditional arms and legs out position is a slower fall than a head-down position. Once again, this is caused by varying air resistance.
Also have a look at the New York Times link below, where it shows how Felix Baumgartner is planning a freefalling speed-of-sound attempt later this year.
July 11th, 2010
Because they arn’t falling through a vacuum. Air resistance dude. Air resistance.
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July 11th, 2010
its called terminal velocity. earths gravity doesnt accelerate people to the speed of sound, partly because of air resistance and partly because of our mass. so you can only fall so fast, if you want to reach the sound barrier, you have to add mass, reduce wind friction, and/or generate MORE downward acceleration.
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physics class and my mind
July 11th, 2010
It was Capt Joseph Kittenger that jumped from a balloon at 102,800 feet in 1960. He reached a speed of 988 km/hr which is 90% the speed of sound - at that altitide.
Sky divers don’t reach anywhere near that speed, as they reach what is called "terminal velocity". The terminal velocity of a falling body occurs during free fall when the body experiences zero acceleration. The upward force of air resistance will eventually balance the falling body’s weight. It will continue to fall at aconstant velocity known as the terminal velocity.
Bear in mind when looking at speeds reached by skydivers, that they vary depending on the body position of the skydiver. The traditional arms and legs out position is a slower fall than a head-down position. Once again, this is caused by varying air resistance.
Also have a look at the New York Times link below, where it shows how Felix Baumgartner is planning a freefalling speed-of-sound attempt later this year.
References :
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/aerodynamics/q0243.shtml
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/JianHuang.shtml
New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/science/16tier.html
July 11th, 2010
Air resistance. It depends on your surface area. The more surface area, the more friction, the slower you fall. If you can make yourself small enough, you could break the sound barrier.
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July 11th, 2010
It was because he was so high. The speed of sound is less because it is colder. The air was much thinner so he could fall faster. Near the earth, terminal velocity or as fast as you can fall is something over 200 mph. It would have to be very high to break the sound barrier and it wouldn’t be close to possible near the ground for a free falling human.
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July 11th, 2010
The official definition of the edge of the atmosphere is the Karman line, 100 kilometers above sea level.
Assuming that air drag is COMPLETELY insignificant, free fall of a body from the Karman line to sea level will result in a final velocity of 1391 meters per second, as calculated with Newton’s law of gravitation and energy considerations. In terms of the speed of sound at room temperature in dry air of 343 meters/second, this speed is at Mach 4.
If you "fell" from infinitely far from Earth without air drag, you would crash in to the ocean at Earth’s escape speed which is 11.6 km/sec. This is about Mach 34.
So to answer your question, YES you can break the sound barrier falling from the sky…BUT, your vessel would need to be well-streamlined such that it keeps air drag insignificant at EVERY point along the way. This is crucial for two reasons: we want to keep consistent with the simple the conservative fall analysis, AND we want to prevent burning up due to the heat dissipation of air drag. Even at these speeds, the best designed aircraft will still experience significant air drag, so it is impractical to conduct such an experiment in reality.
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July 11th, 2010
The answer to this question is simple. The density of your human body is close to one gram per cm cubed, that of water. Now, you have clothes, etc. that catches wind or air. These tend to add resistance to your falling human body, and thus slow the jumper down. The sky diver jumps at about the level of clouds at around 2 km. The maximum velocity reached is around 140 kmph, and after that air resistance keeps the speed constant, while the diver does acrobatic displays in the sky.
A carbon nanofiber frame work with wings attatched to the human will one day allow man to fly like an Eagle. In India, we have tried this with hang gliders that drop off from cliffs on the Himalayan Mountains. They are very exciting.
Above the clouds, the air is thin, so speeds go extremely high. This causes overheating of the falling body, and it is burned and charred black.
A very dense body, like lead, when dropped from a high cliff will drop much faster than a human body, and the slowest is cotton or feather, which tends to float in air.
Many a sky diver has fallen from the sky becos the parachute did not open. They reach about 140 kmph and fall. Those that fall in a soft place like snow tend to live with some injuries, and they are thus saved, since their speed does not cross 140 kmph.
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SJRTC
July 11th, 2010
Yes, you can break the sound barrier falling from the sky, but it depends on your weight, your shape, the way you are positioned as you fall, the air density, and the air temperature.
The speed of sound varies with air temperature (not altitude or density). At low temperatures in thin air at high altitude, if you are heavy and aerodynamically clean, you might exceed the speed of sound as you fall. If the temperature is high and the air is dense, and you are light and aerodynamically dirty (lots of drag), you won’t get anywhere near the speed of sound.
In general, though, it would be quite exceptional for an object in free fall starting with zero speed in the atmosphere to reach the speed of sound. Even a bullet falling downwards will generally reach a terminal velocity lower than the speed of sound.
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July 11th, 2010
Yes, depends on what is falling and how high
Terminal velocity near sea level is about 100mph for a man, 1000mph for a torpedo shaped bomb and 1 mph for a feather
Terminal velocity for a man at 100 000 feet is abot 8oo mph
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