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Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watdcsu!dmcanzi
From: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: more on large animals and gravity
Message-ID: <1637@watdcsu.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Aug-85 03:04:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1637
Posted: Thu Aug 29 03:04:36 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 30-Aug-85 08:30:07 EDT
References: <382@imsvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi)
Organization: none.  Entropy: maximum possible.
Lines: 26
Summary: 

In article <382@imsvax.UUCP> ted@imsvax.UUCP (Ted Holden) writes:
>                      Likewise, the pteratorn  had to  catch prey  to live.
>          Try catching  a deer or rabbit sometime with your governor set at
>          5 miles per hour.  Likewise, the picture science gives us  of the
>          pterasaurs  is  basically  ludicrous.   You get this picture of a
>          giant flying reptile, making it's home in cliffs, using its 5 mph
>          stall speed  to spread  its wings  into the wind and take off and
>          soar.  The problem with  all  this?   It's  wouldn't  be  able to
>          capture airborne  prey at  5mph;   it would  have to  have been a
>          prehistoric vulture.

You have a basic misunderstanding here.  The stall speed of a bird (or
an airplane) is not its maximum speed.  It's the speed at which the
bird is moving too slowly to fly -- basically its wings can't produce
enough lift below stall speed.  Both birds and airplanes are safest
when they're moving at well above their stall speeds.

The only reason I got involved in this argument in the first place was
that I was amused that the boring ground school stuff I took with my
flying lessons had such an unexpected use as arguing in net.origins.

-- 
David Canzi

This has been a test of the emergency broadcasting sytem.  It was only a test.
Repeat: only a test.  If this had been a real emergency, you would be dead.