Physics Question

[Oisterman]

Forgive me if this is extremely common knowledge...I asked a few of my friends, and they all said it seemed to make sense, but nobody could really answer my questions.

I never took physics in school...so bare with me here.

I recently read an article about a dude who lost his ipod out of his pocket during a skydive, and found it still working. Neat enough...

However, I wonder at what height is terminal velocity reached for something like that? How much difference is there falling out of a plane in comparison to getting tossed off of the top of a very tall building - say a skyscaper or something like that.

I guess what I'm asking is, is there a point where the height of the drop becomes a negligible factor? Its gotta be different based upon the object...

I dunno, just got me thinking.

[Showy]

depends on the weight of the object versus air resistance and shizz. theres an equation somewhere for it. ill look. havnt a clue what the term is so i cant find it...sorry.

heavier object will each max speed faster.

V-Op is right.

Terminal Velocity is reached when the force of gravity is like equal to the force of drag as I recall. The whole equation for it is lightweight confusing for some at first. The mass of the object falling is a big factor in the equation.

As time goes on it takes longer and longer to reach the point where you're at terminal velocity. You reach about 50% in a few of seconds, then it takes like 2-3 times longer to reach 85-90% then twice as long as that to reach just under 100%.

Digging down deep into memory lane, so don't take those numbers down to the pin point.

Here's the equation.



Vt = terminal velocity,
m = mass of the falling object,
g = acceleration due to gravity,
Cd = drag coefficient,
ρ = density of the fluid through which the object is falling
A = projected area of the object

There's also Stokes flow and some other factors depending on the situation.




By the way I'll start being more active, Oister.

Miss all you guys and gals.

[Jaydude]

oister, bro


lots of small mammals.... like cats

well they have a non-terminal terminal velocity lol

that means they dont even die if they fall from space.


SPACE!

They sure as hell would be pretty close to death

[Oisterman]

Yeah, I remember ants not having a terminal velocity, no matter how high they fell from