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To: Asmodeus
The Massive Fireball flames did not descend to the surface at "terminal velocity".

Do you even know what the term "terminal velocity" means? It means the fastest speed that an object can attain when falling through air. Terminal velocity is greater for a streamlined object, whereas a fluid would have a much LOWER terminal velocity as it has more drag than the fuselage of a plane for example. In fact, if fluids didn't reach a reasonably low terminal velocity, every drop of rain would be like rifle bullets, and would cause tremendous damage and kill people. As that doesn't happen, I think it's safe to say that fluids have a low terminal velocity.

I'd say for a fluid, the terminal velocity would be about 25 miles/hour, or 37 feet/second.

Given that speed, for the fireball to have only fell for 10 seconds as claimed, then it would have been at;

d = 37 * 10 = 370 feet.

Now that's a far cry from your wild claims. In fact, for it to have fell a mile as Kalstrom claims (in contradiction to your claim of 5500-7500) feet, it would have taken;

t = 5280/37 = 143 seconds to fall from that high.

Now 143 is a bit more than 10, don't you agree?

Neither did the source of the Massive Fireball flames, the thousands of gallons of jet fuel that gushed out of the left wing tanks when it separated from the fuselage, descend at "terminal velocity" prior to being ignited and thereby becoming the Massive Fireball.

Blah, blah, blah. You really need to look up some basic science facts before you post, as you only reinforce the fact that you have no idea at all what you're talking about....

183 posted on 08/19/2002 11:55:06 PM PDT by FormerLurker
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