I mean if every variable aligns with any possible edge case that can bleed off velocity including three body interactions with the moon. Is there ever a situation where some substantial (car++) or enormous (skyscraper+++) size rock lands on the surface without explosive energy? Align stars, consult math mediums, play some ZZ Top, piss off Bary the narcissist, or conjure a primordial black hole, just land me a big rock in my yard Science Santa. I want an m-type for Maymass, but any type will do if you can land it.
9.8m/s?
That’s the acceleration due to gravity, 9.8m/s per second. The speed at which it hits depends on how long it’s been accelerating at that rate.
Assuming it was just sitting there and the earth encountered it, wouldn’t that be the bare minimum speed that it could impact the planet?
9.8m/s^2 isn’t a speed. It’s a rate of acceleration; it tells you how fast your speed is changing. The minimum speed an object can impact the planet is equal to “escape velocity”—the speed you’d need to launch an object from the surface so it escapes the Earth’s gravity permanently. In the Earth’s case, that speed is about 40,000 km/hr or 25,000 mph.
Ah, gocha. I’ll be doing calculus in the fall and physics in the spring. I’m not quite there yet.
That’s an acceleration. The speed would increase the longer it had been influenced by the earth’s gravity.
Any idea what the impact speed would be? I haven’t gotten to that point in they math/physics department (yet).