Subject: PW! Calculating falls! (Ghastly Busters part 3) Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 08:57:08 GMT From: "Dreadite" <thepillowkiller@aol.com> Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon <OOC> Wai wai! Eran here to explain for anyone who in the course of the last ... year... has missed this story arc! *random glowering* Author dies. 1 - Eran and Andrew ran into each other at a Pokemon Center. 2 - They did the only logical thing, and went exploring haunted houses. 3 - Here's where they are now. Ok! </OOC> >Andrew looked up toward the source of the creak. Large doors had opened up >in the ceiling, and the sound of stone scraping against wood started to >overpower the room. Eran, distracted by Andrew's outcry, noticed neither. >As the scraping faded, a mass of stone started to appear through the hole in >the ceiling. As Andrew looked toward the oddly shaped stone statue, and as >it sped toward the ground, he figured out almost immediately what it was. >But before he could say anything about it, he saw that the stone was not >just lowering. There was a far more pressing matter to deal with. Or at >least there would be, if Andrew didn't do something quick. Eran hadn't had >a chance to react and was still running toward Andrew. >And in the way of the statue. >"ERAN --" "Eh? What?" Eran paused for a split second in her run to try and catch what her companion was screaming about. And then watched as a suprisingly angry looking Farfetch'd statue shot past her towards the floor, catching her jacket on the intricate detail of the leek it was holding. Eran shot down into the hole after the statue, emitting a garbled noise between shock and something wholly unrepeatable. Andrew just stared in shock for a moment, then ran to the edge of the new hole to gaze downward. What met his sight was rather predictable, the image of splinters flying as the statue continued to fall, almost out of sight as it flew right through a seemingly impossible number of floors below it, emitting the noise of a wrecking ball battering through a wooden shed, until it finally seemed to come to a halt. Andrew let out a sigh of relief, and began to look for a way to get down to the lower floors. "Wait a second... LOWER FLOORS?" Andrew boggled at the thought. "But we already fell through the floor TWICE." And at that moment, the ceiling started to crack. Andrew took a step back and stared upward, then covered his face as the ceiling shatted, scattering splinters everywhere as the Farfetch'd statue shot by him, a terrified Eran clinging to it. "ANDREeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!" The voice faded into the distance and then grew closer again as she shot by again. Andrew just gaped, glanced back at the urn, and started to think. The statue shot by in a blur, the shrieking noise trailing away again. Andrew glanced up, then reached for his belt, tossing the ball containing David the Kadabra to the ground. David materialized, and glanced at Andrew. "David, how fast is she falling!?" Andrew pointed at the statue as it shot past again. David paused for a moment. <<Well, let's see. She's probably at terminal velocity right now, so she's falling at the square root of 2 times the weight, divided by the drag coefficient times the air density multiplied by the frontal area of the statue... so we need to determine the frontal area. I'll say it's seven square feet. Then we...>> ***** For those interested in the actual mathmatics going on, here you go... so you'll have an idea what David is prattling on about during this lengthly break. The formula for determining the terminal velocity of a falling object is this: W = Weight of falling object D = Drag on falling object V = Velocity r = Air Density A = Frontal area of falling object Cd = Drag coefficient Formula for determining velocity: D = Cd*r*V^2*A/2 At terminal velocity, drag = weight. Solving for velocity, we obtain the following equation: V = sqrt((2*W)/(Cd*r*A)) To determine the Cd, or Drag Coefficient, we must solve the following: Cd = D/(A*.5*r*V^2) That's the fairly simplified version of what Andrew was listening to, except that the whole problem was worked out. Solve yourself, assume the weight of the statue is 1000 pounds, the air density is equal to 100 feet above sea level (go look it up, I'm not an encyclopedia!), and the frontal area of the statue is 7 square feet. Determining drag is rough, I'll save space and not include that. =D Solve it as well as you can and simplify. ***** (Five minutes later...) <<So in conclusion...>> David continued talking before Andrew shushed him with a hand wave. "You should have just said REALLY FAST! Can we stop it?" Andrew looked perplexed. Leave it to a walking talking computer to confuse the hell out of him when he asked a simple question. <<Oh, certainly,>> David replied, waving a hand. Psywaves emitted forth, and the statue began to slowly lose momentum, slowing to a halt after a few more passes. Eran fell off the statue and crumpled to the floor, gasping for breath. "Are you all right?" Andrew asked, recalling David and looking down at the sprawled form of Eran. "Meeeep." "Hey, that's a start." Andrew took a step back as the statue resumed its eternal plunge, and rifled through his backpack. "I think I've got something to help with motion sickness here. Weird house, huh?" Eran gave him a dazed, but obviously sarcastic glance. "Hrwwwmp." She stared at the ceiling, watching the statue fall by. After a few minutes, she opened her mouth to speak again. "We've gotta get to the roof, I think." "Easier said than done, isn't it? I mean, we've already gone down, and up, more than once," Andrew replied, standing up and offering a hand to Eran. She stumbled to her feet, and dusted herself off. "Yeah, but that's the only place the statue didn't go!"