Re: 14-year-old hit by 30,000 mph space meteorite

Gerrit Blank, 14, was on his way to school when he saw "ball of light" heading straight towards him from the sky. A red hot, pea-sized piece of rock then hit his hand before bouncing off and causing a foot wide crater in the ground.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/space/5511619/14-year-old-hit-by-30000-mph-space-meteorite.html

(At least it wasn't a toilet seat!)

Great news story!

But how do they come up with stuff like:
"The teenager survived the strike, the chances of which are just 1 in a million - but with a nasty three-inch long scar on his hand."

Is it 1 in a million to survive a hit by meteor? Is it 1 in a million to be hit by a meteor? Is it 1 in a million for a teenager to survive a meteor strike? Just how many meteor-human strikes are recorded each year?

I suspect that the meteor did not actually contact the boys hand. If it had been a direct hit, the hand would be gone. That is more kinetic energy than from a large caliber or high velocity rifle.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/2009 06:31PM by Frank Furter.

With Fox News setting the "standard" what can you expect anymore.

I think the 30KMPH is in space. After those things hit the atmosphere they slow down to terminal velocity pretty quickly. It was probably doning no more than, oh say, 15KMPH.

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Old Dude

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mrcondron
I think the 30KMPH is in space. After those things hit the atmosphere they slow down to terminal velocity pretty quickly. It was probably doning no more than, oh say, 15KMPH.

I was trying to do some quick numbers:
a marble weighs about 20 grams (about 300 grains), the weight of large bullet like around 44 or 45 caliber. Typical bullet velocity is in range 1000-2000 m/sec for high velocity weapons. If the meteor was travelling 15,000 MPH this is equal to about 6,000 meters/sec. The amount of injury would depend on the energy transfer which would be represented by slowing of the meteor. If the meteor slowed by 1/2 after the hit, it would have transfered the effective energy of a fully "stopped" high velocity large caliber rifle.

Vince: check my math on this.


additional information at

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/boy-survives-being-struck-by-a-meteorite/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/06/12/a-boy-claims-he-was-hit-by-a-meteorite/

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/2009 08:12PM by Frank Furter.

For that matter what's a "space meteorite"? Do they have other kinds of meteorites?

Some people need the identifier otherwise they wouldn't get it. Whut? A whut? Oh, one o' those space thangs.

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Old Dude

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mrcondron
Some people need the identifier otherwise they wouldn't get it. Whut? A whut? Oh, one o' those space thangs.

That reminds me of a guy at the planetarium I worked at. He was building a "meteorite" projector. He told him the audience would not appreciate having rocks thrown at them and he should do a meteor projector instead.