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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."

2 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Alternative funding: RIAA by TripleA · · Score: 4, Funny

    They could be dropping Ipod's and other mp3 players instead. I guess that would recieve some attention... "First mp3 player in space bombs".
    Of course, it wouldn't really be in space. But who trusts newspaper headlines anyway?

  2. 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