You had my little hopes up! I read "speakers" and thought "stereo speakers," which around here means a trunk filled with a subwoofer and others, and oh, what I wouldn't give to have something capable of silencing them!
Re: I Didn't Know That
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:41 pm
by neufer
owlice wrote:
I read "speakers" and thought "stereo speakers," which around here means a trunk filled with a subwoofer and others, and oh, what I wouldn't give to have something capable of silencing them!
bystander wrote:
Trunk (torso) refers to the body of an animal , separate from the limbs (appendages) and head.
Re: I Didn't Know That
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:56 pm
by owlice
By "them," I was referring to the speakers, not the trunk, and let's not go separating any appendages and heads from owl torsos, thank you very much!
Well, guess what, Beyond? One or two years ago I read in a Swedish newspaper that a man in northern Sweden may actually have been killed by a meteorite a hundred years ago or so. The man had gone out for a walk (or maybe he had gone out to do some work: to cut down a tree, to chop some wood, to check a trap he had set for an animal), but he fell down and was found several hours later lying on the ground. A piece of rock was found next to him. The man was brought back home, but this was long ago and I don't know what medical treatment he could have, and a few days later he died. The rock beside the man was preserved, and now it has been proved to be a meteorite. Perhaps the poor man was struck by it, so that it caused his death.
I read this one or two years ago, and I don't think I could find the quite small article again. But maybe the poor man in northern Sweden really was killed by a meteorite!
Ann
Re: I Didn't Know That
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 2:08 pm
by Beyond
I should think that there would have have been some very visible marks left from the impact that would have been mentioned. Oh well, just another strange mystery that will go unsolved. Plenty of those around.
Beyond wrote:I should think that there would have have been some very visible marks left from the impact that would have been mentioned. Oh well, just another strange mystery that will go unsolved. Plenty of those around.
A meteorite wouldn't hit you very hard. If it hit you in the head where you had hair, it might not break the skin at all, even while causing brain damage. Certainly, a modern forensic analysis would reveal the cause of death, but 100 years ago in rural Sweden... I can easily see something like that being missed.
Re: I Didn't Know That
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:10 pm
by Beyond
Chris Peterson wrote:
Beyond wrote:I should think that there would have have been some very visible marks left from the impact that would have been mentioned. Oh well, just another strange mystery that will go unsolved. Plenty of those around.
A meteorite wouldn't hit you very hard. If it hit you in the head where you had hair, it might not break the skin at all, even while causing brain damage. Certainly, a modern forensic analysis would reveal the cause of death, but 100 years ago in rural Sweden... I can easily see something like that being missed.
They actually slow down that much?? Of course if it weighed enough, speed wouldn't matter. The gravity of the situation would be enough.
Re: I Didn't Know That
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:52 pm
by Chris Peterson
Beyond wrote:They actually slow down that much?? Of course if it weighed enough, speed wouldn't matter. The gravity of the situation would be enough.
They land at terminal velocity... the same as a rock thrown off a tall building or cliff. In order to hit the ground still carrying some of their original speed they need to start out between 10 and 30 feet across, and will still be several feet across (or more) at impact... in which case the cause of death would be pretty obvious (if they could figure out who you were after scraping you off the bottom of a small crater).
Re: I Didn't Know That
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:55 am
by alter-ego
Chris Peterson wrote:
Beyond wrote:They actually slow down that much?? Of course if it weighed enough, speed wouldn't matter. The gravity of the situation would be enough.
They land at terminal velocity... the same as a rock thrown off a tall building or cliff. In order to hit the ground still carrying some of their original speed they need to start out between 10 and 30 feet across, and will still be several feet across (or more) at impact... in which case the cause of death would be pretty obvious (if they could figure out who you were after scraping you off the bottom of a small crater).
For terminal-velocity metal (iron/copper) objects, I think the results of a top-of-the-head impact break down something like this:
Penny (0.1oz) => hurts, and a good head of hair would help
1/2" diameter ball bearing (0.3oz) => Not good, you'd wish you had a hard hat
1" diameter ball bearing (2.4oz) => Too big to survive
Using a conservative drag coefficient, I would hazard an educated guess that a spherical, stony meteorite with an impact weight of ≈4oz (≈1.3" diameter) would be deadly. Pound-class meteorites have penetrated houses, and the 20-pound Peekskill meteorite did a number on the back of a Chevy Malibu.
Re: I Didn't Know That
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 5:13 am
by Chris Peterson
alter-ego wrote:Using a conservative drag coefficient, I would hazard an educated guess that a spherical, stony meteorite with an impact weight of ≈4oz (≈1.3" diameter) would be deadly. Pound-class meteorites have penetrated houses, and the 20-pound Peekskill meteorite did a number on the back of a Chevy Malibu.
The terminal velocity of the body you describe would be about 100 m/s. The kinetic energy of impact would be about 500 joules- say, six times that of being hit by a baseball thrown at an average speed. How much damage that would do would depend on where it hit.
My point was that being hit by a meteorite on the head could result in serious brain damage without obvious external trauma... which sounds like the situation described by Ann.
Re: I Didn't Know That
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 3:32 am
by alter-ego
Chris Peterson wrote:
...
My point was that being hit by a meteorite on the head could result in serious brain damage without obvious external trauma... which sounds like the situation described by Ann.
Thanks for the clarification - I did miss your point.
...
Certainly, a modern forensic analysis would reveal the cause of death, but 100 years ago in rural Sweden... I can easily see something like that being missed.
I agree. Given the circumstances of the times and the story, there's all kinds of unknowns that such evidence could plausibly be missed. In fact, it is in question whether the rock was a contributor to the man's death, or if it did hit him, where? In my opinion, I personally think the odds are low for a meteor strike to the head that could result in death and yet not show external trauma. Of course there could be extenuating circumstances or events that explain why he died. This is a classic story where we probably don't know really what happened.
Re: I Didn't Know That
Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 6:24 pm
by Beyond
Cat survives 19 story plunge from Boston Highrise.
Talk about being light on your feet!!
Attention all Mozart music lovers (and others also) A composition made by him when he was about ten has been found.
Click below for the articule and a video of it being played. It's about 4-minutes long. To me... it seemed longer.
I always liked Mozart music; but I could never play the piano! To play different notes with my left hand would get me messed up with the notes my right hand should be playing.
Re: I Didn't Know That
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 1:55 pm
by Ann
Beyond wrote:
Click below for the articule and a video of it being played. It's about 4-minutes long. To me... it seemed longer.
I guess I sort of agree with you.
Take a look at this statue, however, a portrait of the young boy who wrote that piece of music!
Ann
Re: I Didn't Know That
Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 4:50 pm
by Beyond
I noticed the bronzed pigeons at his feet. I guess pigeons have been around for quite a while. I wonder if the real pigeons poop on the bronzed pigeons as much as they poop on everything else.
Re: I Didn't Know That
Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 3:29 pm
by Beyond
4-feet of hail in texas.
Some of the tall tales that come out of texas are actually true
Keep in mind that the big rockish looking stuff you see is actually dirty hail.
Hail, hail the gangs stuck here...
, separate from the limbs (appendages) and head.
