Originally Posted By: KirbyGillis
There's a problem with this scenario.


Nuh-uh.

Quote:
The Earth is traveling around the Sun at approximately 67,000 mph. When the earth and its atmosphere collide with comet dust at that speed we can observe shooting stars. If sand is pushed out of the space station the collision force is much smaller and the maximum speed that it will achieve will be limited by the terminal velocity. Every grain of sand will meet the ground virtually intact. I don't want to go through the calculation at this time but to illustrate the point: If we pushed out a bowling ball from the ISS it would travel at a terminal velocity of 350 mph when it met the ground...only then would it be a real sight to see.


Well, if you were static in Earth's orbit at the top of the atmosphere I guess all that would be true. But we are kicking this stuff outta the International Space Station. I looked it up just for you. The ISS is at an altitude of 254 miles travelling at 17,150 MPH. The Earth's atmosphere goes quite high but doesn't really thin greatly until about ten miles up. So our bowling bowl immediately is going a tad fasterer than 350 MPH. Then it has 244 miles of virtually zero friction to pick up speed due to gravity before it hits appreciable push back and by then it's on fire big time. Matter of fact, the ISS is going just a tad slower than the speed at which stuff burns up in the atmosphere. Specifically .24 MPS slowerer. Don't feel bad, Kirby, I posted your post at my political site, (not your name) and asked them what was wrong with this (your) post. Nobody got it even after hints. There was one person who got it right away and that was my so-called boss. He claims to have an IQ of 178 which is 7 points higherer than my best but then in my defense I only take IQ tests when I'm drunk.


What? I've a drawing I want here. How I do that?