[meteorite-list] rock on the noggin story

[Chris Peterson]

Sterling-

I'm trying to imagine what kind of dynamics could cause a meteoroid to 
actually slow down and then speed up again. The force of Earth's gravity 
only increases as the stone falls. Short of a skipping event, I can't come 
up with a case where you would see anything other than a monotonic decrease 
in vertical speed. Is that what you are considering, or something more 
complex? I've modeled the atmospheric dynamics of a meteor under many 
conditions, but I've never seen a speed profile like you are suggesting.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <kelly at bhil.com>
To: "metlist" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Cc: "Dave Harris" <entropydave at ntlworld.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 03, 2005 12:05 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] rock on the noggin story


>    About HOT ROCKS from space, the glowing meteorites of legend and bad 
> movies,
> consider the meteoroid, still in flight immediately after it has reached 
> the
> stagnation point where air resistance slows it to a subsonic crawl or even 
> a
> near-stop before it then speeds up again in free fall toward the Earth.