Return Styles: Pseud0ch, Terminal, Valhalla, NES, Geocities, Blue Moon. Entire thread

Freefall to sea level

Name: Anonymous 2006-09-08 20:51

How long would it take to fall from different levels of the atmosphere to sea level at freefall speed?  (80 km, 600 km, and 800 km) 

Name: Anonymous 2006-09-11 10:49

you will actually never reach terminal velocity. as time goes to infinity, the velocity approached terminal velocity. but usually it's like an asymptote.

v(t) = sqrt(mg/b) * tanh[t / sqrt(m*g/b)]

time at terminal velocity would be:

v_terminnal = sqrt(m*g/b) = sqrt(m*g/b) * tanh[t / sqrt(m*g/b)]

=> 1 = tanh(t / sqrt(m*g/b)

=> atanh(1) = t / sqrt(m*g/b)

=> t = atanh(1) * sqrt(m*g/b)

inverse hyperbolic tan (atanh) of 1 is infinity. so you never really reach terminal velocity, just gets really really close to it, so the difference doesn't really matter.

Newer Posts
Don't change these.
Name: Email:
Entire Thread Thread List