ANSWERS: 3
  • Well, unless it were built out of some super material, it would blow apart in the atmosphere like a large meteorite. Even if it didn't, it would get extremely hot. But let's say you solved these problems. Without atmospheric friction it would take only a little more than 3 minutes to hit the ground. However, an object of those dimensions would have a terminal velocity of about 8.42 m/s or almost 19 mph at sea level. The earth's atmosphere is about equivalent to 8 km of air at sea level pressures. So it would take an additional 16 minutes for it to fall to the ground. These are pretty rough calculations. Final answer: about 20 minutes.
  • Thanks for your answer. Further question, though. You say it would get extremely hot. I thought that objects like meteors burned up on entry more because they already had velocity from their moving through space before they encountered the Earth's gravity and atmosphere. Or in the case of the shuttle, because of orbital velocity. You're saying an object starting "at rest" at this height would encounter enough friction to heat up significantly?
  • Yes, because it would fall about 70 miles before it even hit the thinnest part of the stratosphere. It would be going pretty fast before then.

Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC

Answerbag | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy