Don't you just love movies with a happy ending?
Posted on 07/14/2009 9:33:55 AM PDT by rdl6989
A man died after his car plunged 600 feet off the edge of the Grand Canyon's South Rim, authorities said Tuesday. The Arizona park's regional communications center received several reports of a car driving off the edge about 6 a.m. Monday, according to a written statement.
"Upon arriving at the scene, investigators found tire tracks leading to the edge behind the Thunderbird Lodge and received reports of a single occupant in a blue passenger car driving over the edge," the statement said.
Rescue personnel descended on ropes and found the vehicle about 600 feet into the canyon. The man's body was recovered shortly afterward, the statement said.
The incident occurred near the El Tovar hotel in a village on the canyon's South Rim, park spokeswoman Shannan Marcak said.
Authorities have not ruled the death a suicide, she said. "It has not been ruled anything at this time."
The statement said the National Park Service is investigating. Typically, Marcak said, such investigations take at least a few days.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Really? I figured they had to fly it out of there or suffer the wrath of the environmentalist god Gia.
What about acceleration due to gravity and the effects of drag due to wind over a solid object?
Seriously.
No problem with heights....it’s widths I’m concerned about!
Militant
Bet he had his foot on the break pedal.
In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?
Gravity. It’s not just a good idea, it’s the LAW!
I was standing at an observation rail on a platform that was overhanging the canyon a bit. I was nervous, but OK with it, until...
A busload of Japanese tourists swarmed down onto the platform. They happened to be “comfortable” with jostling.
I got the heck out of there.
Your both wrong. His downward velocity when he went over the edge was 0. He would then begin accelerating downward at a rate of 32ft per second squared.
Well his next of kin should take legal action. /s
There was no guardrail!
Laugh, but this is the mindset on so many issues these days.
His 40 mph was just in the horizontal vector - by the way you calced it he would have hit the ground three times faster if he was driving 120 mph, and that’s just not the case
It’s not the fall that’ll kill ya, it’s the sudden stop.
You fail. His initial velocity would have been horizontal, the descent is vertical. Assuming he accelerated at 32.2 ft/sec/sec in the vertical, starting with no initial vertical velocity he would go splat in squareroot( 2 x 600 / 32.2) = 6.1 seconds. In that 6.1 seconds, again assuming no horizontal acceleration he would have gone about 358 feet in the horizontal.
Yes, but a car doesn’t fall at the speed it was traveling, it falls at a speed of 32 ft per second/per second. The 40 MPH quits as soon as the wheels leave the ground and gravity takes over! However, all things considered you are probably pretty close to the mark, and in the long run it doesn’t really matter.
It is not the fall that hurts, it is the sudden stop at the end....
He falls for approximately 6.1 seconds...
His downward speed at impact is appoximately 134 mile/hour.
It doesn't matter how fast he was going sideways.
Don't you just love movies with a happy ending?
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