[Campion]

Yes, some brief calculations tell me that an object freely falling from 200,000 ft. would have taken 104 min. or 1 Hour, 4 Min. to reach the earth. This, of course is from the formula that objects fall due to gravity at 9.8 m/s.

Uh, objects accelerate due to gravity at 9.8 m/sec**2, they don't fall at 9.8 m/sec. The correct calculation shows that an object dropped from 200000 feet in a vacuum would hit the ground in 111 seconds, or a bit under 2 minutes. However, in reality, an object dropped from 200000 ft above the earth is falling in air, and so would hit a terminal (maximum) velocity which would depend on its aerodynamic characteristics. For something with minimum lift and substantial density, like a big piece of metal wreckage, that's going to be in the vicinity of 200 or 300 miles per hour, meaning that the time to hit from 200,000 feet is roughly around 8-10 minutes.

[rs79bm]

You are correct. I was performing the calculation in a broader sense. Traveling with a velocity of 400 to 500 mph would have taken a little over 9 minutes.

[Jackie]

I wondered why posts 59 and 60 were removed. No. 59 is still in my Find in Forum. Just curious.

[Jackie]

. . .the time to hit from 200,000 feet is roughly around 8-10 minutes.

Being very concerned, we were scanning all the channels, and "debris reaching the ground" wasn't even mentioned for at least two hours. Thanks for your calculations.

[FReepaholic]

>>...For something with minimum lift and substantial density, like a big piece of metal wreckage, that's going to be in the vicinity of 200 or 300 miles per hour, meaning that the time to hit from 200,000 feet is roughly around 8-10 minutes....<<

Yeah, but Columbia's speed was around 12,000mph at the time of breakup.

[Doctor Raoul]

At extremely high altitude, a human body spins rapidly in the thin air. Heads and limbs from a damaged body might just come off as a result.