Red Bull Stratos: A Mission to the Edge of Space. 08th Oct
Discussion
Eric Mc said:
There is no accounting for the dimness of a lot of people. The trouble is that the internet allows dim people an outlet to profess their dimness.
The whole thing just ends up with groupthink. You now have a whole section of people who think shouting "it's fake, question everything!" constitutes critical thinking and makes them enlightened. The genuinely depressing thing is that science is fascinating enough without adding layers of X-Files quackery. I honestly think most of the "Icke people" are just being intellectually lazy, and are using this tinfoil hat worldview as a comfort blanket for their lack of understanding. Making an effort to have even a Fisher Price "my first" understanding of cosmology, particle physics, quantum mechanics and suchlike is difficult. By latching on to the "trust nothing" narrative, you immediately remove the requirement to make any effort, as you can instead just point to some bats
t insane YouTube video explaining how it's all a Reptilian overlord fuelled Matrix-esque illusion. That's all Icke is really doing. Add in a dose of new age "embrace your inner power" twaddle to make it all warm and fuzzy and then sit back and watch the DVD sales come in..."You know what Bill's doing, he's going for that 'anti-marketing' market, he's very clever!"
My missus wasn't too excited/interested/amazed by Felix's feat.
Hundreds of feet up in the air "yawn..."
So I explained to her that he jumped out from higher up than the distance from our childhood homes (we lived about two miles apart as kids, not knowing each other) in Birmingham to Stratford upon Avon.
NOW she is amazed.
Me too.
Hundreds of feet up in the air "yawn..."
So I explained to her that he jumped out from higher up than the distance from our childhood homes (we lived about two miles apart as kids, not knowing each other) in Birmingham to Stratford upon Avon.
NOW she is amazed.
Me too.
onyx39 said:
BBC News are saying he broke the sound barrier.
how do they work this out though. Higher up the sound barrier is a different speed to what it is on the ground.I know making things colder reduces the speed of sound in air (sort(k*r*t) is the sum for that, with k=1.4, but I am not sure air up that high even has the same specific heat ratio of 1.4, r = 287 is the specific gas constant and T is in Kelvin). But then surely at lower densities it is slowed further?
onyx39 said:
BBC News are saying he broke the sound barrier.
how do they work this out though. Higher up the sound barrier is a different speed to what it is on the ground.I know making things colder reduces the speed of sound in air (sort(k*r*t) is the sum for that, with k=1.4, but I am not sure air up that high even has the same specific heat ratio of 1.4, r = 287 is the specific gas constant and T is in Kelvin). But then surely at lower densities it is slowed further?
Otispunkmeyer said:
onyx39 said:
BBC News are saying he broke the sound barrier.
how do they work this out though. Higher up the sound barrier is a different speed to what it is on the ground.I know making things colder reduces the speed of sound in air (sort(k*r*t) is the sum for that, with k=1.4, but I am not sure air up that high even has the same specific heat ratio of 1.4, r = 287 is the specific gas constant and T is in Kelvin). But then surely at lower densities it is slowed further?
If he exceeded the speed of sound locally (wherever he was during the descent) he "broke the sound barrier".
What's the issue with the value changing with altitude?
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