[meteorite-list] Meteoroid Energy Calculations

From: Mr EMan <mstreman53_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:00:40 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <586188.40215.qm_at_web55207.mail.re4.yahoo.com>

I just did for some "for funzies" calculations about the kinetic energy a meteoroid has during certain phases of flight.-- WOw!

Sorry for our metric friends I calculated results in foot pounds and US Tons.

A 5 kg stone passing into darkflight which is going around 1788.889m/s --a little over a mile per second but faster than a standard military 30.06 rifle bullet:5,900,732.17 foot-pounds --almost 6 million!

Same stone when as it drops below supersonic speeds(341.97m/s): 215,632.7 foot-pounds About 108 foot tons!!

At terminal velocity of 200mph or 89.44m/s that is 14,750.346 ft/lb
or 7.5 foot-tons of compression at impact as it is converted into a meteorite.

For 1kg stone:Darkflight:1,180,146.43 Mach:43,126.54 Impact:2,950.07 ft/lb

For a .1 kg (100 gram) DF:118,014.64 Mach:4,312.65 Impact:295.01 (somewhere between a bullet and a record fast pitch baseball)

30kg at the ground:88,502.08--44 tons! THAT has to produce a seismic signature!!!

This is also why I feel the true main reason Carancus excavated a crater, was that at the high ground altitude the booger was large anyway and had not bled off all the cosmic velocity and was probably still traveling at supersonic speeds. Say Carancus was only 300kg it would have hit the ground delivering 12,937,963 foot pounds of force if traveling anywhere near a supersonic velocity.

Calculate yourself at
<http://www.ajdesigner.com/phpenergykenetic/kenetic_energy_equation.php>
 They've a great many online calculator functions worth book marking!
Elton
Received on Fri 10 Jul 2009 06:00:40 AM PDT