Lets say a 101m tall redwood was pushed over slightly. Which would win a 100m race, the redwood, or Bolt?
Lets say a 101m tall redwood was pushed over slightly. Which would win a 100m race, the redwood, or Bolt?
Are you high?
I'm thinking that Bolt would win. The 100 meter mark up on the tree would have to follow an arc, and travel 157 meters. Also, the tree would have a horrible start compared to Bolt.
Also, would they use a starter's pistol, or yell "Timber"? That might be an issue, so this race probably won't happen because of that.
I'd go with the tree. They fall pretty fast.
This link should work.
If the runner had a rolling start, michael johnson would win, since he has much more speed endurance than bolt and the tree
whitey wrote:
Lets say a 101m tall redwood was pushed over slightly. Which would win a 100m race, the redwood, or Bolt?
This is an interesting question, and a pretty good matchup, it turns out.
To keep things from getting ridiculously complicated, let's make a few assumptions:
1. Bolt runs 9.58.
2. There's negligible air resistance for the tree.
3. The tree is, despite all appearances, an infinitely thin, rigid rod, with mass uniformly distributed along its length.
4. The tree is basically attached to the ground by a hinge that gives no resistance, meaning the tree can fall freely (in just the right direction, of course), but the base can't go anywhere.
...and the answer is: It depends.
It depends on that push at the beginning, because, if the push is too weak, the tree can stay nearly vertical for the whole time it takes Bolt to finish.
The tree will initially have some potential energy (mgh/2), all of which will have been converted to rotational kinetic energy by the time the tree lands (though the tree actually finishes slightly before it lands, since it's taller than 100m).
The rotational kinetic energy is given by Iw^2, where I = the tree's moment of inertia, and w = the tree's angular velocity in radians per second. For a thin uniform rod rotating about one end, I = (mL^2)/3, or in this case, (mh^2)/3.
You can do some conservation of energy stuff to find a formula for the treetop's speed as a function of its angle of displacement from the vertical:
v = sqrt[3gh(1-cos(theta))]
...and then you can do an integral and some substitutions to come up with the treetop's horizontal displacement as a function of time (a little messy, though).
But it still comes back to that push, because the tree goes nowhere unless it has either some initial kinetic energy or some initial angle of displacement, or both. Taking these into account makes the integral much messier, with elliptic integrals and whatnot, so I'm somewhat estimating here:
In giving the tree some kinetic energy, its mass comes into play. 500,000 kg is a reasonable guess. At that mass, if you can somehow impart 1,000,000 joules of energy to the tree at the gun, it should just edge out Bolt.
Or, regardless of the tree's mass, if you tilt it five degrees off the vertical, and then let it go, it should win in similar fashion. (However, leaning over the line like that, the tree is really getting a 9 meter head start.)
Either way, it'll have a slow start, but eventually fly by Bolt, reaching a top speed of about 20 m/s, three-quarters of the way through the race.
Closer to the finish, though, Bolt will actually find himself gaining on the tree, as the treetop's velocity will nearly all be directed towards the ground by this time. The tree only needs to fall through 82 degrees to cross the finish line, since it's 101m tall. By this time, its horizontal speed will be a mere 7 m/s.
Exciting race, actually, even more so if they share a lane.
So when you were after my heart, did you take it or woo it over to your side?
o.O wrote:
So when you were after my heart, did you take it or woo it over to your side?
Remain calm. We're just casually discussing redwoods here.
Exciting race, actually, even more so if they share a lane.
Nice finish.
if we're going to talk about ridiculous topics why dont we just bring this stuff up too...
1) can an airplane take off if it was on a treadmill?
2) what animal would if they had to swim 100m and then run 100m?
3)jason rexing
4)that fool that tried to break the treadmill marathon world record....cant remember his name right now
4) anything the 430miler says
5) pirate-cat-gun girl