3 ms·

Your temperature is just plain wrong, the standard atmosphere model states -6.5°C per 1000m. This is means that the temperature was -97.5C below surface temp. S

• pwnna 12y ago
  Which temperature? For ambient (T), I'm using http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=temperature+at+15000m http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=temperature+at+15000m as the data. Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_temperature#mediaviewer/File:Comparison_US_standard_atmosphere_1962.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_temperature#mediavi... The temperature experienced by the pilot as he was ejected was is calculated as the stagnation temperature (temperature on the surface of his clothing, or where the speed of the air = 0), which at Mach 1 would be around -12C. However this temperature will decrease as he slow down. Luckily it should take only about.. 45 seconds for him to get around 5000m, which becomes much more survivable. Edit: from that page you linked, it says: > Between 11 km and 20 km the temperature remains constant.
• mariuolo 12y ago
  Could the low temperature have helped with regard to thin air? I'm no expert, but I seem to recall that cold limits the damage from hypoxia.
  • teraflop 12y ago
    Hypothermia does provide some protection against hypoxia-induced brain damage. However, exposure to air at -13C for only a few minutes is very unlikely affect your core body temperature enough to cause hypothermia. And anyway, the time taken to fall from 15km to a more tolerable altitude would probably not be long enough to cause that type of damage in the first place.
• lutorm 12y ago
  That lapse rate is only valid in the troposphere, afaik.