Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Meteorite Bowling

Posted by timothy on from the uh-yeah-this-is-uh-research dept.

La Camiseta writes "According to this article from the Guardian Unlimited Observer, some members of the Salt Lake Astronomical Society want to drop bowling balls from airplanes onto the Utah salt flats to simulate meteorites falling. Unfortunately, it's hit a few snags."

3 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Re:They wanna drop what?! by KDan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually an airplane is *far* more likely to be blown off course by wind than a bowling ball, because unlike the bowling ball it's designed to be affected by "wind blowing" - otherwise it couldn't take advantage of the Bernoulli effect and lift off.

    A bowling ball, on the other hand, though it could maybe technically be affected by the bernoulli effect (ping pong balls are, after all...), has a much smaller surface area to weight ratio.

    Daniel

    --
    Carpe Diem
  2. What about shooting them? by Atomizer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm not a phsyics expert, so this may be a stupid question...

    Couldn't you just fly a lot lower an shoot things, like maybe start with potatos?

  3. Terminal Velocity by lirkbald · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I found a terminal velocity calculator here. I don't feel like hunting up exact numbers, but it looks like a bowling ball isn't gonna manage much more than a few hundred miles an hour. Meteors start out going much faster than that.

    This "experiment" has no bearing the behavior of meteors. Sounds like these guys should go review basic physics before they propose dangerous experiments.