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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
 Posted - 09/12/2013 : 08:38:28 [Permalink]
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So it's not just your average flying frog?
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 09/12/2013 : 13:42:05 [Permalink]
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This is almost as good:
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by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 09/12/2013 : 23:03:04 [Permalink]
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| I can imagine that frog singing "I Believe I Can Fly" just like this other unlikely flyer. |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/13/2013 : 09:35:13 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by sailingsoul
I can imagine that frog singing "I Believe I Can Fly" just like this other unlikely flyer. |
Sloth is a Cardinal Sin. Sorry, but that just won't fly. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/13/2013 : 11:17:19 [Permalink]
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As for that frog, I have a funny feeling it survived. It's got its limbs in a perfect skydiver's posture, ideal for as much wind resistance as possible, and thus for the slowest descent possible for, well, a frog without a parachute.
I see no sign of the exhaust flames or smoke between the frog and the camera, so it's probably not surrounded by flames. The frog may have been sent flying by the first blast of air being pushed ahead of the exhaust. In fact, what's behind the frog seems not to be flame, but clouds of smoke, lit orange by the bright flames of the rocket exhaust.
Again, no sign of even that probably noxious solid fuel booster smoke on the camera side of the frog.
Look also at the other objects silhouetted against the orange smoke clouds. They seem to be scraps of weeds, maybe stuff that was left loose on the ground after mowing was done around the pad. Interestingly, that stuff is airborne all around the frog, but seems not to be burning.
And wouldn't the frog have retracted its limbs if it were being roasted? Wouldn't it look twisted, and withered, not symmetrical and normal?
Also, critters from about the mass of cats and downward don't have a very high "terminal velocity." (Which makes firemen "rescuing" treed cats more an exercise in public relations than in humane heroics.) A frog has so little mass, it could probably fall just about any distance without injury.
So, depending on whether the flying frog was already a crispy critter (and I think it wasn't), it likely landed safely and is still hopping about. Hopefully hopping far away from the launch pad. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/13/2013 11:50:05 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 09/15/2013 : 07:02:58 [Permalink]
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I'd be more worried about the crushing acceleration the frog experienced during its launch, when terminal velocity doesn't apply. Also, flash burns.
Greg Mayer has more details. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/15/2013 : 11:19:00 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
I'd be more worried about the crushing acceleration the frog experienced during its launch, when terminal velocity doesn't apply. Also, flash burns.
Greg Mayer has more details.
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Thanks for that link.
I think the idea that the frog had been perched on either the rocket or its gantry is just one possibility, and I've seen no evidence that was actually the frog's launching point. But I think the debris around the frog is consistent with weedy chaff from the ground surface, and that's the place I suspect the frog was when a gust blew it away and lifted it in the same turbulence that lifted the ground chaff. If the frog had started from the same place as the chaff, it would likely be a grassy/weedy area at some unknown distance from the exhaust itself, unpaved with concrete because it was not expected that the trimmed weeds/grass there would start a wildfire.
Any such weedy or grassy area would probably, by design, be far enough from flash effects at least to not burst into flame. I just hope it was also far enough that the frog wasn't slow-roasted. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/15/2013 11:20:02 |
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One small step for man, one giant leap for frogs
