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(meteorobs) Another really old message: How much energy does a meteor emit?
This is a really neat, "wowie" kind of fact about meteors: next time your
friends ask why you bother watching for those little magnitude 3 or 4 "spiffer"
meteors, quote this statistic at them: one spiffer = one ton, one yard! :)
Lew
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 16:09:42 -0700
To: mplist@bitnik.com
From: Roy Tucker <tucker@noaodot edu>
Subject: Re: Halley's Comet Returns In Bits And Pieces
"The kinetic energy of a moving object goes up as the square of the
velocity according to the relationship: K.E. = 1/2 x mass x velocity ^2.
The mass was given as 0.01 gram or 0.00001 kilogram. The velocity is
approximately 40,000 meters per second. Solving, we get 8,000 joules of
energy."
The thought crossed my mind that some folks might not have a good
feeling for how much energy 8,000 joules is. This little ten milligram dust
grain moving at 40 kilometers per second has enough energy to lift one
metric ton a distance of about 0.8 meters or about 32 inches.
- Roy
------- End of Forwarded Message
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