If the resistance force against falling objects, is always equivalent to its weight (so they can fall faster higher up because of thinner air and lower resistance), why do meteorites burn up in the atmosphere, but rocks can be pushed way faster than their terminal velocity in water but nothing really happens?
In: Physics
If an object starts falling while it is in an atmosphere, then the atmosphere will keep it from reaching a velocity that causes compressive heat.
But if an object starts falling from higher up, where the atmosphere is essentially nonexistent, then the atmosphere can’t slow it down at first, allowing that object to start moving much faster than it ever would if it was falling through an atmosphere. So when it hits the atmosphere, it compresses the atmosphere in front of it and that generates a tremendous amount of heat.
I don’t know how water comes into it. Rocks can’t be pushed through water at the kind of speeds they fall at. That would require tremendous amount of energy, and if you did manage to get it going it would create a lot of the same problems as falling through an atmosphere, but even more intense.
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