Cool pic but theres a few problems with it. The main one being he won't be above Mach in the Troposphere. There won't be a Vapor Cone around him at any point in the dive at all. At the point in the pic, he would have slowed to Terminal Velocity or close to it. Mach will occur in the Stratosphere where there is little to no vapor to form a cone. Plus his mass is way to small to begin with. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by VF
There's also a bunch of folks out there that are scared Felix is going to "Burn Up" when he re-enters the "Atmosphere". LOL...Relax! He never left the Atmosphere! He left just 1 layer of the atmosphere. He's also got 2 other things working for him Mass and Velocity. Neither one he has enough of to vaporize, especially Velocity.
LMAO! Right?Quote:
Originally Posted by JETS GARAGE
He looks like he's covered in glorified Red Duct Tape and Glad trash bags!
See that red box? Its carrying his ENORMOUS Ball Bag with him.
Way to get all science and ruin my day ;) For reals question though, aren't vapor cones usually observed at high but still subsonic speeds (transonic-y)? When you say his mass is too small, do you mean he doesn't have enough mass to displace enough air at a high enough speed to produce a vapor cone (terminal velocity would preclude him from traveling fast enough in humid enough air), or is there something else about his relative low mass that would prevent something like this from being observed?
Yes. Vapor Cones can be observed Sonic and Subsonic. It all depends on Velocity, Humidity and some extent (albeit lesser) Mass. The higher the Humidity (amounts or percentage of water molecules suspended in the air), the lower the velocity required to produce a vapor cone and visa-versa. H20 is non compressible so its molecules smash into themselves, generating heat and and thus into gas you see... "The Cone". In the Stratosphere Layer where he will be making Mach Velocity, there is a negligible amount of moisture if any at all. Definitely not enough to produce a Vapor Cone at his rate of velocity, which will be AT or SLIGHTLY above Mach. Now if he was 2 or 3 times Mach (remember MACH is a measure of Velocity vrs Sound not Velocity vrs Resistance! Im just using MACH as a baseline measurement of velocity), that would be a different story and he WOULD have to worry big time about transitioning into the Tropo because some of that speed WOULD carry over and he would get really Warm, lol! But that won't happen because he's just being propelled by Gravity alone. By the time he transitions into the upper Troposphere where there is more particulate including water molecules, he would have slowed down enough via resistance. Even in the "Delta" position in the picture above, Terminal Velocity would have slowly kicked in and Particle Resistance would have slowed him down to subsonic speed...like a brake or falling onto a bed made of feathers.Quote:
Originally Posted by VF
Secondly, He will most definitely produce a Sonic Boom but his Mass is so small and he will be so high in the Atmosphere, we on the ground won't be able to hear it. The air particles between him and us would have broken up the sound wave by the time it would get to us. Kind of like someone cracking a whip a quarter mile away from you. Thats getting into a whole nother branch of Physics though.
Confused yet? lol
The Red Bull Team knows exactly what's going to happen. They're just playing it up to get the "Car Wreck" crowd to watch the show.
EDIT: There's actually already been a man up 123,500 feet above the Earth Surface, Privateer Nick Piantanida in 1966. He had a equipment malfunction and had to descend in his gondola. Because of the Box shape of the gondola, he was only able to obtain around 600 mph. He tragically died from rapid decompression and lack of oxygen on his third attempt at Joe K's record later that year. You can read about his life here>>>
http://artofmanliness.com/2010/10/07...icent-failure/
http://content.artofmanliness.com/up...0/nickedge.jpg
Quote:
Originally Posted by JETS GARAGE
Meh. After about a 50 foot free fall, most would be dead on impact or shortly there after any ways. These guys just have more time to think about it.
Just one more thing, remember Gravity rules all, even Hydrogen, Helium and Light. The atmosphere closest to the body generating gravity will always be thicker and more dense than the outer edges of the atmosphere. Vapor cones will be easier to produce closer to the ground and with less velocity because gravity has brought the particles closer to the center of gravity. More particles=less room to displace= smashing into each other=heat=cone.
Thats why most lower speed or subsonic vapor cones are produced over bodies of water and even more so closer to the Equator. More water particles in the air above a water body due to evaporation.
