To: Nathan Zachary
See my 66. The bolide came in, blew up, and at that time transferred most of it's energy to the air, making a big boom. Then, small chunks (meteorites) hit a frozen lake at much lower energy (they would have fallen ballistically at some terminal velocity).
Meteor Crater was different- that was a chunk of nickel-iron that did NOT blow up (and transfer energy to the air), but hit Earth and made a sizeable crater. Anyone within sixty miles or more would have been killed. It would have destroyed a city and it's burbs.
BTW, 1 kiloton is 3.08E12 foot-pounds and Hiroshima was, I think, 12 kilotons. So if you know the weight of your car and how fast it is going, you can calculate how many Hiroshimas of kinetic energy your car has at that speed.
Or, if you observe a bolide and can figure its mass and speed from its entry orbit, you can figure the kinetic energy out in Hiroshimas (or joules or foot-pounds). If it blows up in the air and fragments fall ballistically (which is what usually happens) you can approximate the energy spent in the air.
76 posted on
06/09/2006 10:10:19 AM PDT by
DBrow
To: DBrow
So, global warming is from an increased rate of meteor/meteorite impacts that are heating the atmosphere? 8<)
90 posted on
06/09/2006 10:43:09 AM PDT by
Robert A Cook PE
(I can only donate monthly, but Hillary's ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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