[meteorite-list] rock on the noggin story

From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Jul 3 15:21:23 2005
Message-ID: <014401c58004$5f7b2e60$f551040a_at_bellatrix>

Sterling-

I'm trying to imagine what kind of dynamics could cause a meteoroid to
actually slow down and then speed up again. The force of Earth's gravity
only increases as the stone falls. Short of a skipping event, I can't come
up with a case where you would see anything other than a monotonic decrease
in vertical speed. Is that what you are considering, or something more
complex? I've modeled the atmospheric dynamics of a meteor under many
conditions, but I've never seen a speed profile like you are suggesting.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <kelly_at_bhil.com>
To: "metlist" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Cc: "Dave Harris" <entropydave_at_ntlworld.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 03, 2005 12:05 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] rock on the noggin story


> About HOT ROCKS from space, the glowing meteorites of legend and bad
> movies,
> consider the meteoroid, still in flight immediately after it has reached
> the
> stagnation point where air resistance slows it to a subsonic crawl or even
> a
> near-stop before it then speeds up again in free fall toward the Earth.
Received on Sun 03 Jul 2005 03:21:11 PM PDT