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LAigle - Solution



U.B. Marvin’s words: This observation is not in question, although it
contradicts our current expectation that the larger fragments will
travel farthest.

D.W. Sear’s words: The fragments do not distribute themselves randomly
over the impact site. As might be expected, they are found over an
ellipse (the ‘dispersion’ or ‘scatter’ ellipse) elongated along the
direction of the flight path. The larger fragments are almost always*
found at that end of the ellipse towards which the meteorite is
travelling. This is because the kinetic energy of the fragments is
greater for larger masses, since every fragment originally had the same
velocity. The heavier fragments require more breaking**, and travel
further, before arcing down under gravitational pull to Earth (Nature
and Origin of Meteorites, pp. 33-34).

* an indirect allusion to the L’Aigle circumstances
** is that a misprint - should it be ‘braking’ ??

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I am looking forward to your contributions!

Regards, Bernd