3 ms·
Also, you can throw a mouse out of an airplane and it can walk (scamper) away from the impact. It's the surface-area to volume (weight) ratio. Small things hav
by Isamu 12y ago
Also, you can throw a mouse out of an airplane and it can walk (scamper) away from the impact.
It's the surface-area to volume (weight) ratio. Small things have a higher surface-area-to-weight, and therefore lower terminal velocity than big things.
There are lots of scaling effects which seem counter intuitive.
- agumonkey 12y agoRecently I was reading about Terminal Velocity too. Turns out a few people managed to survive falls at that speed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall#Surviving_falls http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall#Surviving_falls.
- grecy 12y agoSometimes when I'm in a plane I daydream about what body shapes I'd make in free fall in an attempt to increase my wind resistance and decrease my terminal velocity. I also wonder if it would be better to land on trees, water, or a really really steep snow covered mountain.
- agumonkey 12y agoI'd love to fall in small trees standing on a steep snowy surface leading to a lake. Or maybe having a http://imgur.com/aLaTfIX http://imgur.com/aLaTfIX under your seat ?
- abandonliberty 12y agoScaling also causes problems for the magic school bus. Microfluidics prevent our lungs from working at that scale.