Supersonic Skydive
Photo Credit: https://www.livescience.com/23710-physics-supersonic-skydive.html

 

Code Number: 3B45.50

Demo Title: Shock Wave Fronts - Supersonic Jump

Condition: Excellent

Principle: Speed of Sound - Shockwave

Area of Study: Oscillations & Acoustics, Wave Fronts

Equipment: 

Supersonic Jump Movies and mpegs.

Procedure:

Felix Baumgartner flew to an altitude of 39,045 meters (128,100 feet) in a helium-filled balloon on Oct 14, 2012.  He then completed a record breaking jump from the edge of space.  This was done exactly 65 years after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier flying in an experimental rocket-powered airplane.  He reached a maximum of speed of 1,357.6 km/h or 843.6 mph (Mach 1.25) through the near vacuum of the stratosphere before being slowed by the atmosphere later during his 4 minute 20 second long freefall.  The 43-year-old Austrian skydiving expert also broke two other world records: highest freefall and highest manned balloon flight.

References:

  • Alexander Gossling, Sebastian Becker, Jochen Kuhn, "Hands-on Experiment for Modeling the Baumgartner Jump Using Free-Fall Kinematics with Drag", TPT, Vol. 59, #2, Feb. 2021, p. 111.
  • Philip Blanco, "Computational Skydiving", TPT, Vol. 57, #6, Sept. 2019, p. 355.
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  • A. Müller, "Author's Response", TPT, Vol. 51, #5, May 2013, p. 261.
  • Lukas Schellenberg, "Baumgartner's Terminal Velocity", TPT, Vol. 51, #5, May 2013, p. 261.
  • Andreas Müller, "Supersonic Jump", TPT, Vol. 51, #1, Jan. 2013, p. 14.
  • Pirooz Mohazzabi and James H. Shea, "High-Altitude Free Fall", AJP, Vol. 64, #10, Oct. 1996, p. 1242.
  • José M. Colino, Antonio J. Barbero, and Francisco J. Tapiador, "Colino, Barbero, and Tapiador Reply", Physics Today, Vol. 67, #11, Nov. 2014, p. 10.
  • David Wright, "The Discussion", Physics Today, Vol. 67, #11, Nov. 2014, p. 10.
  • Alan Spero, "A Lead-In Paragraph", Physics Today, Vol. 67, #11, Nov. 2014, p. 9.
  • Alfonso M. Gañán-Calvo, "Shock Waves and History in Free Fall", Physics Today, Vol. 67, #11, Nov. 2014, p. 9.
  • José M. Colino, Antonio J. Barbero, and Francisco J. Tapiador, "Dynamics of a Skydiver's Epic Free Fall", Physics Today, Vol. 67, #4, Apr. 2014, p. 64.
  • Jennifer Leman, "So You Want to Skydive From Space?", Popular Mechanics, May/June 2022, p. 40.
RED BULL STRATOS FREEFALL JUMP