Good luck felix baumgartner!!!!

[Digz]

Quite nice that he still holds the longest freefall record though.

Indeed. I was thinking about this and given the speed Felix was going and that they were aiming to break to the sound barrier I guess the record for longest free fall was going to be touch and go. What I mean is the faster you go the quicker you will arrive at the critical heigh for opening your parachute.

Nevertheless a great achievement indeed.

[Daniel-K]

it was tense at the last few moments and when they showed him tumbling it was a bit nerve racking but it was good a great step showing what we can achieve, good job felix

[Mansnake]

Back on the 11Oct Mansnake wrote that and I thought to reply

"naw, just that they are still trying to sort his medication, isnt it LSD wot is supposed to make you think you can fly? "

I need some LSD to make me jump from there lol

[Mansnake]

Does anyone know why i can't edit my posts ?

[lukebl]

Being pedantic here, but when they say that Baumgarten broke the sound barrier in his freefall, presumably they mean he would have broken the sound barrier if he had been travelling at 800 mph at ground level.

At the altitude he was at when doing that speed, the air is so thin that the speed required to hit the sound barrier is a lot higher due to the reduced air density. As I say, maybe a bit pedantic, but I like facts! Still an achievement, though.

[earth titan]

Being pedantic here, but when they say that Baumgarten broke the sound barrier in his freefall, presumably they mean he would have broken the sound barrier if he had been travelling at 800 mph at ground level.

At the altitude he was at when doing that speed, the air is so thin that the speed required to hit the sound barrier is a lot higher due to the reduced air density. As I say, maybe a bit pedantic, but I like facts! Still an achievement, though.

Are you volunteering to ring him up and tell him? :-)

Typed by me, using fumms...

[Stu]

Lukebl, I presume they are still going to measure a Mach number as a judgement of whether he broke the sound barrier, rather than just judge vs the speed of sound at sea level? I agree it should be on this basis.....but it's still blooming fast however you look at it

Stu

[Stu]

Just checked into this a little bit, and the indications are that the speed of sound is actually lower at altitude, presumably related to temperature, aswell as pressure

http://www.redbullstratos.com/m/science/speed-of-sound/

Wiki answers indicates 675mph at 100,000 ft

Stu

[Stu]

Sorry for the third post, just occurred to me to say that he could still break sound barrier in such thin air, it's just the shock wave produced would have been negligible compared with at sea level. Breaking the barrier just means going faster than the speed of sound in that medium, it doesn't have to create a huge shock wave or sonic boom

Stu

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Being pedantic here, but when they say that Baumgarten broke the sound barrier in his freefall, presumably they mean he would have broken the sound barrier if he had been travelling at 800 mph at ground level.

At the altitude he was at when doing that speed, the air is so thin that the speed required to hit the sound barrier is a lot higher due to the reduced air density. As I say, maybe a bit pedantic, but I like facts! Still an achievement, though.

Not correct. The speed of sound is largely independent of pressure or density of a gas, but it is a function of temperature (scales with the square root of temperature). At between 10 and 30km up, it is below 300m/s (691 mph), considerably lower than at ground level (340 m/s).

[lukebl]

Not correct. The speed of sound is largely independent of pressure or density of a gas, ...

Ah, I stand corrected! It was gripping watching it live.

Why do my kids snigger at his surname!

[pwalsh61]

How it was really done:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10/15/felix-baumgartner-stratos-jump-lego-video_n_1966114.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

[Beulah]

This forum is amazing.

I use several other forums and this amazing event doesn't register on any of them! Yet on SGL there are at least SEVEN threads created in the last two days!

I posted this in one of the other threads just in case you've missed it. Headcam shots from Felix. Hope you don't feel dizzy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qGlF4Wtf1WM

[Viv]

How it was really done:

http://www.huffingto...&comm_ref=false

other half has just sent that to me - that's brilliant !!!

[Digz]

Lol, just saw that on FB made me physically laugh out loud.

[SteveWxm]

I love this photo! Joe watching Felix jump. Must have brought back a lot of memories for him.

[claire1985]

A truly incredible and brave man. X

[Alastair Rae]

Not correct. The speed of sound is largely independent of pressure or density of a gas, but it is a function of temperature (scales with the square root of temperature). At between 10 and 30km up, it is below 300m/s (691 mph), considerably lower than at ground level (340 m/s).

Thanks for that. Made me go and read the Wikipedia entry on speed of sound. It had this interesting graph showing how it varies with altitude. It also supplies the crucial factoiid that Mach is a ratio, not an absolute speed.