4 ms·
@jcims terminal velocity only applies to something in free fall, not to something with a high magnitude inertial vector relative to the Earth (like a meteorite)
by eevilspock 5y ago
@jcims terminal velocity only applies to something in free fall, not to something with a high magnitude inertial vector relative to the Earth (like a meteorite), or anything with thrust (like a supersonic plane or a bullet).
I think @krona's got the right answer.
- sjburt 5y agoIt will slow and eventually reach terminal velocity. I don't know if it has enough time/distance to do that before hitting the earth but given the small size I wouldn't be surprised.
- outworlder 5y ago> velocity only applies to something in free fall, not to something with a high magnitude inertial vector relative to the Earth (like a meteorite) It could be conceivably coming at a speed high enough to still be supersonic when it hit the ground. However, were that the case, I doubt there would be still much of a house remaining. Or maybe a block for that matter, depending on how fast it was going. More likely, it just slowed down due to friction. This is even more likely for a small rock. > anything with thrust (like a supersonic plane or a bullet). Plane has thrust, but a bullet doesn't ;)
- MauranKilom 5y agoInitial velocity doesn't matter (outside of relativistic considerations) for whether an object makes it through the atmosphere. Density and size do.
- rmdashrfstar 5y ago“…an object forced to move faster than its terminal velocity will, upon release, slow down to this constant velocity.” https://www.britannica.com/science/terminal-velocity https://www.britannica.com/science/terminal-velocity IIUC, the meteorite was forced or “released” into its “high magnitude inertial vector” initially, and would continue to decelerate as it approached to the surface… whether it did much of that on the way down is a different story!
- mr_toad 5y agoA lot depends on the initial velocity and angle of impact. Considering that the earths atmosphere isn’t much more than 100km thick, and a meteor could in theory come in head-on with an initial velocity of 70km per second, there isn’t going to much time for it to slow down.
- bagels 5y ago70km/s is interstellar material
- haimez 5y agoBased on some quick googling (not an expert in the related physics like some sibling commenters seem to be), earth’s orbital velocity around the sun is ~30km/s and the sun’s orbital velocity around the center of the galaxy is 250km/s
- MauranKilom 5y agoAir resistance is to first approximation quadratic with velocity. High initial velocities lead to very high braking force, so it wouldn't have 70 km/s for very long. Also see surrounding comments for more related physics.
- MauranKilom 5y agoActually, Newton's impact depth equation tells you that an unpowered object generally won't sustain high velocity beyond a certain distance when impacting into something (in this case the atmosphere): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_depth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_depth In this case, the ratio of densities is maybe 2000, so without gravity the meteor would expend all its initial kinetic energy after traveling 2000 times its diameter through the atmosphere. That's less than 1 kilometer. Hence, it will reach terminal velocity long before hitting the surface. (See also the Meteorite part in the wiki article).