Daredevil Completes Supersonic Space Dive
Felix Baumgartner became the first person to break the speed of sound with only his body on Sunday after an historic skydive from the edge of outer space. Baumgartner also set the record for highest free-fall without a parachute (119,846 feet). He landed on his feet in the New Mexico desert after free-falling for four minutes and 20 seconds at speeds reaching 833 miles per hour.
(http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/ap_supersonic_skydiver_felix_baumgartner_jt_121014_wg.jpg)
This was amazing, two questions I have a simple person...
1) Why did'nt he burn up on the way down?
2) At that speed , how was it possible to open a chute without it ripping?
still incredible to watch him drop from the capsule....
1 Based on wind resistance, for example, the terminal velocity of a skydiver in a belly-to-earth (i.e.:face down) free-fall position is about 195 km/h (122 mph or 54 m/s). This velocity is the asymptotic limiting value of the acceleration process, because the effective forces on the body balance each other more and more closely as the terminal velocity is approached. In this example, a speed of 50% of terminal velocity is reached after only about 3 seconds, while it takes 8 seconds to reach 90%, 15 seconds to reach 99% and so on.
Competition speed skydivers fly in the head down position and reach even higher speeds. The current world record is 1342.8 km/h (833.9 mph, equivalent of Mach 1.24) by Felix Baumgartner who skydived from 24 miles above earth on 14 October 2012. The record was set due to the high altitude where the lesser density of the atmosphere decreased drag.
An object falling toward the surface of the Earth will fall 9.80655 meters (or 32.18 feet) per second faster every second (an acceleration of 9.80655 m/s² or 32.18 ft/s²). The reason an object reaches a terminal velocity is that the drag force resisting motion is approximately proportional to the square of its speed. At low speeds, the drag is much less than the gravitational force and so the object accelerates. As it accelerates, the drag increases, until it equals the weight. Drag also depends on the projected area. This is why objects with a large projected area relative to mass, such as parachutes, have a lower terminal velocity than objects with a small projected area relative to mass, such as bullets.
2 A worldwide audience watched live on the Internet via cameras mounted on his capsule as Baumgartner, wearing a pressurized suit, stood in the doorway of his pod, gave a thumbs-up and leapt into the stratosphere.
(https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRDpkqF0zh6JZUwUabcGLitWeMw6v-B0ZoZ9Wi-i48XfQcaSpcHww) woo_hoo
.... and what happened to the balloon and capsule?
are-you-there
Michael.............. like all things that go up will eventually come down.......................................... smiley-hug008.gif
(http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/spacecraft-re-entry-4.jpg)