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From: john@frog.UUCP (John Woods)
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: Re: Amazing Stories' amazing attitude toward facts
Message-ID: <261@frog.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-Oct-85 14:59:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: frog.261
Posted: Mon Oct 14 14:59:34 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 17-Oct-85 07:36:18 EDT
References: <1959@brl-tgr.ARPA> <3090@hplabsb.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA
Lines: 32

> > I hope some others were as annoyed as I was by the way "Amazing Stories"
> > 
> > My real bitch is the way they showed a meteor, depicted as nearly a
> > meter across, coming through a second-story bedroom window and causing
> > only moderate damage to the *room*, coming to rest embedded in the
> > floor. Hmmph. I would expect a crater, about half a kilometer or so
> > across, where the *neighborhood* used to be.
> 
> it's a function of its mass and initial velocity.  Small meteors (most)
> will usually burn up before reaching the ground.  Very large ones (a mile
> or more in diameter) will hit the ground with considerable force (your

Rober Heinlein states in _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ that a 100 tonne rock
falling at terminal velocity (~11 km/s) will release enough energy to act like
a small atomic bomb, and I recall doing the calculations at the time and
agreeing [I don't remember enough at the moment to duplicate the feat, and I
am starting to learn better than to forge ahead at such moments *].  A meteor
about a meter across would likely not pack enough wallop to vaporize on impact
(I'm guessing about it's approximate mass), but I'd expect it to bury itself
far below the basement.  A rock a mile across I would expect to take out a
continent...:-)
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* Just think; before I went to work as a Computer Scientist, I knew enough
Physics to collect an undergraduate degree from MIT...  It must be X-rays from
the Ethernet cables. :-)

--
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw%mit-ccc@MIT-XX.ARPA

"Out of my way, I'm a scientist!"
			- War of the Worlds