Physics of 'Can Kirk (ST) Survive the Jump?'

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Lab Pet likes this video clip, EXCEPT...I do, in fact, care about the physics, very much. Still very amusing vid and worth the watch. Can you do the math? heh heh



http://gizmodo.com/5114714/can-young-ki ... om-the-car

^ Don't try this at home (ouchy).

Interesting. Thanks for posting it, LabPet.

The alternative is for young Kirk not to touch the brakes but to put the car into a curve.

If he is doing 36 ms-1 and at 30 m before the edge he steers the car onto a circular path then the car will be on a circle with a circular path which is 188.5 m long (30 meter radius).

His angular velocity (w) will be 1.2 radians per second, if we assume his mas has a mass of 1000 kg then the centripetal force required will be 43.2 kN.

F = r m w2

This is a larger force than the that due to the brakes on the hypothetical 1000 kg car (which was 4.9 kN). So I think that the alternative of this at a late stage will not save young kirk.

I think he would be better off taking action much sooner, at about 100 meters from the edge. There he could extert 1.3 kN using his tyres to put the car into a curve. He could maintain the same speed and then drive away from the motorcycle.

_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

Yeah, I wondered about that. I've watched the trailer a couple times. The real unexplainable part, is you see the car plummeting off the cliff behind him...how did he get out of the way fast enough?...

Maybe it's James Indiana Kirk, not Tiberius...

maybe the earth is spinning slower by that time so gravity isn't as strong.

worth a shot!

No, I think that the car would drip the ground better if the weight of the car was increased. The brakes and steering would have to be able to deliver a larger force to change the path of the car. But if the limiting factor is the grip of the tyres on the sand than an increase in car weight might help.

Perhapes Kirk should stick 500 kg of lead in the car, this however would make the car more sluggish and require him to get a bigger engine.

_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.