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Skydiver Felix Baumgartner seeks to break sound barrier
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- diego 16y ago"It is likely that in his long freefall of more than five minutes, he will exceed the speed of sound - the first person to do so without the aid of a machine." If he can reach 120k feet, I bet there is a machine involved in the process. Why not just say he's the first person to do it through freefall?
- sp332 16y agoThey mean his acceleration will be without the aid of a machine.
- diego 16y agoAgain, it's not true. He's just converting the potential energy stored with the aid of a machine into kinetic energy.
- cma 16y agoIf you are going to be this pedantic, then even if he plans on growing wings and flying up there, you will still bitch because the meal he plans to eat the night before will be harvested by combine.
- tkahn6 16y agoFrom a quick Google search, the terminal velocity of a human being is roughly 120 mph. The speed of sound (at sea level) is 761 mph. How is this feat possible?
- smitjel 16y agoMy thoughts exactly...I'm sure he'll be carrying extra weight but I still don't see how this is possible given a certain terminal velocity, like you said. *Edit...wikipedia says current world record is 614 mph set by Joseph Kittinger. He used the head down method in high altitude, less dense air. That's still not supersonic though.
- hnal943 16y agoKittinger wasn't as high up, the extra height should give Baumgartner more time to build speed.
- zck 16y agoAs mentioned in the article, Kittinger "only" jumped from 102,800 feet. Baumgartner will jump from 120,000. Also, Kittinger was in a "rocking chair" position, not head-down. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kittinger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kittinger)
- zck 16y agoThe air's much thinner up there (99% of the atmosphere is below 20 miles up: http://www.albany.edu/faculty/rgk/atm101/structur.htm http://www.albany.edu/faculty/rgk/atm101/structur.htm). Also important -- the 120 mph seems to be in a spreadeagle position.
- j-g-faustus 16y agoTerminal velocity depends on the drag/friction from the air, at higher altitudes the air is thinner. So less drag and higher terminal velocity. The current world record is ~600 mph. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_velocity#Examples http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_velocity#Examples
- pvg 16y agoThe terminal velocity is much higher in this case because the skydiver is assuming a position that minimizes drag and the air is much less dense at the altitudes in question. Additionally, the lower temperature reduces the speed of sound in a smaller but still significant degree.
- mrduncan 16y agoHe's being sponsored by Red Bull (http://www.redbullstratos.com/ http://www.redbullstratos.com/). Their marketing video is actually really cool, it includes plenty of footage of Kittinger. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyGmTV0q2kY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyGmTV0q2kY (make sure you switch to HD)
- sp332 16y agoI used to think that Red Bull just put their logo on cool stunts, but it turns out that they have a really competent team of engineers and fabricators to pull this off. In fact, Joeseph Kittinger, who holds the record currently, said they were the first crew to approach him that sounded like they could do this without killing someone (since 1960!), so he's actually working with them on this.
- jluxenberg 16y agoMore details on the suit in this article / video: http://www.pureskydive.com/2010/03/red-bull-video-reveals-next-gen-space-suit-and-pressure-helmet-designed-specifically-for-red-bull-stratos-mission/ http://www.pureskydive.com/2010/03/red-bull-video-reveals-ne...