this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

With modern tech and ingenuity yes ... much much faster.

But a naked human .... fastest recorded running speed is 44.7 kph (27.7 mph) .... but in flight, or free fall can reach a stabilized controlled terminal velocity of 193 kph (120 mph) and a maximum controlled streamlined terminal velocity of 500 kph (310 mph)

https://www.sciencefacts.net/terminal-velocity-of-a-human.html

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I bet a naked human is faster than a naked falcon

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Depends on the temperature.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Well yeah, we have bigger wings

[–] [email protected] 48 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

Fuck you, the Peregrine Falcon is awesome, it is best bird, fight me.

I will not have my boy be slandered like this.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I’ll fight you. My man the crow will mess up your stupid falcon.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago

They will too! My neighborhood murder is enormous, and they keep the airspace clear of bald eagles. If an eagle ever dares enter our neighborhood, the crows flock out of the trees by the hundreds and chase that motherfucker off, cawing all the way. When they're done, they all return to the trees and caw for a good half hour afterwards. My guess is they're talking about how bad ass they are.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That’s clearly a jackdaw

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's only "fast" because it's just falling.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ok buddy, let's see you pull out of a terminal velocity (180mph) head first dive.

As any pilot will tell you; if you manage to pull out of a dive it's not falling out of the sky, it's aerobatics.

Ontop of this, it's catching prey in it's talons, let's see you try and grab anything when traveling at 180mph in any direction.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I've ridden in an airplane before, it's not difficult.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I'll let my B&G macaws fight for me. However I do think the Peregrine is the best raptor in the world.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Seriously, I'm sure we could find some shark with a faster terminal speed if dropped from high enough...

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago

The real trick is that these Falcons exceed their terminal velocity in those dives. So not just falling but falling with added power and a hell of a lot of style!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

It's not flying, it's falling with style.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Well since they can't reach that speed without being in the air, technically they're the fastest animals OFF Earth.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Planets are typically understood to include the atmosphere.

You wouldn't look at Jupiter and say, "well it's not really that big, there's just a bunch of a clouds in the way," right?

So the peregrines are on Earth, but not on earth.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I wish we could see the center of Jupiter. Is there any land down there?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The Juno mission says "probably, but whatever is going on is weird af" and the current explanations are way above my head.

I think they still mostly assume there's a rocky core, somewhere.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I wonder what magnitude of pressure exists on the surface, if there is such thing. It must be molten from the extreme pressure and gravity. Right?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Have you seen supercritical water and/or helium? The "surface" of Jupiter is probably supercritical hydrogen. I don't know if there's a sharp cutoff like Earth's oceans or a gradual thickening, but it's still only half the density of water. It's possible to build a boat for that!

However, the pressure would be around half a million bar, or 500 times the pressure of the deepest part of the ocean. This is also 5× the pressure used to make synthetic diamods too, and probably about the same temperature too. If the boat had any grease left outside, it would be diamond grease at this point.

If you went further down to where the density increases to about the same as water at sea level, the pressure would quadruple to nearly the same as Earth's core, and the temperature would be about the same too. At this pressure, there's probably another indistinct boundary of metallic hydrogen, and if the boat has survived the ultra-high-pressure hydrogen embrittlement, the steel-liquifying temperatures, and diamond rain, this metallic hydrogen will almost certainly reduce it to a lump of novel metal hydrides.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

In that case Felix Baumgartner is the fastest human being.
With a top speed of 843.6 mike's per hour.
Ussain Bolt and suck it.
Edit: if the autocorrect mistake is funny, just leave tit as tit is.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

Erm ACTually, assuming Mike is 6ft tall, thats only 5000 ish ft per hour, less than 1 mph. That's slower than Ussain Bolt!!

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm sorry. That answer wasn't in the form of a question.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (6 children)

I hate that. In France we have Question Pour Un Champion (questions for a winner) where the host gives a definition and ends with “I am..” and the contestant would say “a cheetah”

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago

One of the craziest interactions I have seen was when a Peregrine Falcon attacked a Canada Goose in flight. We were watching the goose fly up canyon and the peregrine must have thought it was too close to its nest or something. Only time I've heard a goose make a sound like that!!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago

On earth = cheetah

In the skies = dumb falcon

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

If we count diving then one of the animals that returned from orbital experiments would make the peregrine look like a sloth on ludes by comparison.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Nah, have to be without equipment since 1998, and the whole "rocket snail" incident. Banned any support items after that

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

That's the fastest animal above earth, silly

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I have a pair that nest just behind me every year. Its awesome watching them hunt.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Better not do it again, or pretty much nothing will happen.

You’ve been warned

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

To be faaaair, the cheetah reaches 100+ km/h on it's own merits, the dumb falcon just falls really fast

If you drop a whale from space it will probably beat that speed record while falling, the falcon doesn't get extra credit just because he can get up there and survive without help

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

A bowl of petunias would beat the falcon at some points in its descent from space. Possibly over and over again.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Straight horizontal max speed flight for the falcon is 110-130 km/h though, so still very fast even when not falling.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I had a pretty cool encounter with one about 6-7 years ago, I was on a driving holiday and we were cruising throught the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park doing about 90-100km and one of these guys just casually comes up to my window, so close I could have grabbed it. It must have picked some drag effect off the van like a wake in the air or something and it was just gliding next to us with the occasional flap for a good 5 minutes until there was an incoming car and it ducked out

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

A tiny tardigrade shot off a .50 bullet. It would probably survive too

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Pretty sure my daughter runs faster when there's a spider in her room.

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