🧵 Untitled Thread
Anonymous at Mon, 17 Feb 2025 20:14:49 UTC No. 16589497
Hello, anons. I never post here, but I had a science question that I hope you can help me figure out. I have a very rudimentary understanding of physics and so I can't exactly reason out this situation without a bit of help. I'd appreciate any and all responses!
I was reading an anecdote where a man on drugs rode a drop tower at a theme park and profusely vomited over himself. Obviously his vomit did not travel very far in front of him, as it mainly covered himself, but what I was wondering was this:
If you were riding a drop tower (which drops riders at a height and uses nothing but gravity for downward motion, meaning the apparatus and riders are accelerating at a rate of 9.8 m/s^2, if my old high school science memory isn't failing me) and suddenly threw up facing forwards as soon as the drop commenced, what would the final velocity of the vomit trail end up being? Obviously as it is also impacted by gravity, the 9.8 m/s^2 would still apply, but would it perfectly match the falling rate of you and your fellow riders, or would the forwards propulsion of your body expelling the fluid make it fall out of sync? I don't know much about fluid dynamics either, so I'm not sure if the air resistance would also significantly affect the rate of decline.
Anonymous at Mon, 17 Feb 2025 20:17:51 UTC No. 16589501
>>16589497
Seems like a question for an experimental physicist instead of the theoretical physicists that are here.
Anonymous at Mon, 17 Feb 2025 20:18:38 UTC No. 16589503
>>16589501
I feel like this is just a me problem for not knowing any more physics than I was taught back when I was 17, so I don't feel like it would be particularly hard for anyone here to work out. I just don't know where to start because I have no experience modelling these problems.
Anonymous at Tue, 18 Feb 2025 02:49:29 UTC No. 16589815
>>16589497
It's near impossible to say exactly what would happen without actual experimentation. In this case the air resistance is extremely important. The puke is probably going to spread out and lose cohesion, and won't all fall at exactly the same speed.
It'll definitely be more affected by the air, and the ride/riders will drop faster than the vomit. The expelling that you do isn't relevant because it's shooting the vomit in a direction orthogonal to gravity. If you ever did projectile calculations, it's the x axis that doesn't get affected by gravity.
Anonymous at Tue, 18 Feb 2025 16:55:32 UTC No. 16590398
>>16589815
But how significant would the propulsion be if instead of being orthogonal it was at an acute angle upwards? Obviously if it’s too far obtuse it will simply collect on the rider
Anonymous at Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:51:38 UTC No. 16590761
>>16589497
>I'm not sure if the air resistance would also significantly affect the rate of decline.
It does.
Anonymous at Tue, 18 Feb 2025 22:35:41 UTC No. 16590805
>>16590761
So would the vomit float upwards from the perspective of the rider as the other anon suggested? Or would the change be so mild as to be negligible in the immediate
Anonymous at Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:18:32 UTC No. 16590920
>>16590805
the vomit would turn into mist with a few solid chunks depending on what was recently eaten, and would probably land on everybody's heads.
Anonymous at Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:10:58 UTC No. 16590949
>>16590805
as a mass its forward velocity is set at launch, so assume a good wretch and forward thrust behind the mass.
also assume you are good aim and close to open window. all mass goes out.
mass spreads out roughly spherically along a uniformly moving prabola at its center.
you in chair fall straight down the same vertical route.
your pov of mass lokely sees it go up slightly and then roughly hover until you begin to decelerate and it seems to shoot by and splat the asphalt.
clean up before next ride. sorry folks. be a few minutes.