[meteorite-list] Meteorite Fall Rates

From: branchw_at_bellsouth.net <branchw_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Jun 16 21:47:31 2004
Message-ID: <002d01c4540c$6b6469a0$6101a8c0_at_launchmodem.com>

Hello Everyone,

Determining whether meteorite falls has remained constant over a given period of time is more difficult than it first appears. At least other two variables have to be considered.

First, as I point out on my site, increasing population density may account for an increase in reported falls. If the fall rate truly is constant over say the past century, any increase in reported falls may be more of a function of more people covering a given area of the Earth's surface, than an actual increase in fall rate. An inverse correlation between population density and fall rate would be much more interesting.

Also, there may be the problem of time sampling. Meteorites have been impacting the Earth for literally billions of years. The time of recorded human history is so small in comparison. The time that we have been interested in documenting falls smaller still. Any perceived (or even documented) increase or decrease in fall rate may simply be due to random fluctuations that, given a longer period of time, may prove to just be so much "noise" rather than a true signal.

Much like my seti-at-home screen saver program. I sometimes see enormous changes in the frequency over a short period of time but overall, the curve plots a rather flat line :-(

-Walter
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www.branchmeteorites.com
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Received on Wed 16 Jun 2004 09:42:58 PM PDT