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Skydiver To Break Sound Barrier During Free-Fall
Hugh Pickens writes "Over fifty years ago, American Joe Kittinger made history by leaping from a balloon at 102,800 ft, and although many have sought to repeat the feat, all have failed. Now, BBC reports that Austrian extreme sportsman Felix Baumgartner will try to break the long-standing record for the highest ever parachute jump, skydiving from a balloon sent to at least 120,000 ft, and it is likely that 35 seconds into in his long free-fall of more than five minutes, he will exceed the speed of sound — the first person to do so without the aid of a machine. 'No-one really knows what that will be like,' says Baumgartner. Although challenges in the endeavor include coping with freezing temperatures and ultra-thin air, a key objective for Baumgartner will be to try to maintain a good attitude during the descent and prevent his body from going into a spin and blacking out. 'The fact is you have a lot of different airflows coming around your body; and some parts of your body are in supersonic flow and some parts are in transonic flow. What kind of reaction that creates, I can't tell you,' adds Baumgartner."
It's really going to hurt.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
So I guess I'm not the only one to think this guy is going to die doing this stunt.
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
If there's enough atmosphere to lift a balloon, there's enough atmosphere to transmit sound.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
That bit about Superman falling for you? That was a dream. :)
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Failed?!? How can you fail that? Throw yourself self off the balloon and miss the ground?
/greger
... will he bounce?
Test the survivability of this by using a dummy with G-force sensors (just like we see on Mythbusters).
Then, if all goes well - try the stunt.
And please, use some kind of stabilizer to make sure you don't turn into a frisbee.
I do see potential in this 'experiment' if anyone ever needs to bail out on spaceship2.
If my calculations are correct, it's 623 ergs/quartic coloumb-acre.
Isn't "terminal velocity" lower than the speed of sound?
Not true at all. He wants to exceed the speed of sound by falling quickly, but the dang balloon keeps lifting him up! If anything, it's actively working against him!
On a more serious note, which simple machines would you say make up a balloon? Is it a pulley? A wedge? A lever? A balloon is just hot air in a sack. Nothing machine-like about that, though I suppose the mechanism for generating hot air may involve a machine, but that's tangential.
You must be a big hit at the parties.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Pretty good information about high-altitude skydiving here: Speed of a Skydiver
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
If you fart while exceeding the speed of sound, will it make a noise?
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
The Difference between a bad golfer and a bad skydiver? one goes *Whack*... "D@mn". the other goes "D@mn"...Whack.
Except he won't be at 120,000 feet when he reaches 300 m/s, he's going to fall from that altitude.
The question is will his velocity at any point during the descent be greater than the speed of sound; given that the speed of sound will be increasing while his terminal velocity will be decreasing, what you need to find the the point at which the two curves cross.
He will need a very pointy hat.
Ezekiel 23:20
You never do until they leave. :(