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One of the greatest things I've read (and I hate reading)

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Kycntryboy

Registered User
pilot
"Dear Sir:
I am writing "in response to your request for additional information. In block Number 3 of the Accident Report Form, I just put "poor planning," as the cause of the accident. You said in your letter that I should ex-plain more fully, and I trust that the following details will be sufficient.
I am a bricklayer by trade. On the day of the accident, I was working alone on the roof of a now six-story building. When I completed my work, " I discovered that I had about 500 pounds of brick left over. Rather than carry the bricks down by hand, I decided to lower them in a barrel by using a pulley, which fortunately was attached to the side of the building at the sixth floor.
Securing the rope at the ground level, I went up the roof, swung the barrel out and loaded the brick into it. Then I went back to the ground and untied the rope, holding it tightly to insure a slow descent of the 500 pounds of brick. You will note in Block Number 11 of the accident reporting form that I weigh 135 pounds. Due to my surprise at being jerked off the gound so suddenly, I lost my presence of mind and forgot to let go of the rope. Needless to say, I proceeded at a rather rapid rate up the side of the building.
In the vicinity of the third floor I met the barrel coming down. This explains the fractured skull and broken collarbone. Slowed only slightly, I continued my rapid ascent, not stopping until the fingers on my right hand were two knuckles deep in the pulley.
Fortunately, by this time I had regained my presence of mind and was able to hold tightly to the rope in spite of my pain.
At approximately the same time, however, the barrel of bricks hit the ground and the bottom fell out of the barrel. Devoid of the weight of the brixks, the barrel now weighed approximately 50 pounds. I refer you agin to my weight in Block 11. As you might imagine, I began a rapid descent down the side of the building.
In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the barrel coming up. This accounts for the two fractured ankles and the lacerations on my legs and lower body.
The encounter with barrel slowed me enough to lessen my "injuries when I fell into the pile of bricks, and fortunately only three vertebrae were cracked.
I am sorry to report, however that as I lay there on the bricks in pain, unable to stand, and watching the empty barrel six stories above me, I again lost my presence of mind--- I let go of the "rope."
 

kray1395

Active Member
Have you ever watched the show "Mythbusters" on the Discovery Channel? They recreated this incident to see if it could really happen. They recreated it successfully. It was so funny. It happened so fast in real time. I doubt the guy had enough time to think about letting go of the rope.
 

Kycntryboy

Registered User
pilot
kray1395 said:
Have you ever watched the show "Mythbusters" on the Discovery Channel? They recreated this incident to see if it could really happen. They recreated it successfully. It was so funny. It happened so fast in real time. I doubt the guy had enough time to think about letting go of the rope.

No I never saw that episode but I wish I did
 

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I've only seen a few Mythbusters episodes over and over again. Did they stop taping the show or what? I hope not.
 

Jolly Roger

Yes. I am a Pirate.
nittany03 said:
I've only seen a few Mythbusters episodes over and over again. Did they stop taping the show or what? I hope not.

Naw, they showed a new episode last week. One of the myths was, does a sinking ship actually produce suction.
 

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
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Nope. The two of 'em were standing right on it when it went down and stayed floating.
 

Jolly Roger

Yes. I am a Pirate.
nittany03 said:
Nope. The two of 'em were standing right on it when it went down and stayed floating.

The boat that they used was a 5 ton dingy. Every account that I have read by a survivor of a sinking ship, they said there was a suction from the water rushing into the ship, not by the way they tried to define suction. The accounts that I read were Abandon Ship! The sinking of the USS Indianapolis and a book on the sinking of the heavy crusier USS Houston during the Battle of Java Sea. Those men went through hell.
 

Fly Navy

...Great Job!
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
5 ton boat won't have nearly the same effect as something like a DDG. Especially if it has a gaping hole and it sinks in just a few minutes.
 

Daedalus

Registered User
Well they did show how a solid mass pulled the guy right down before the boat, so the answer is it depends on many factors. Something sinking won't necessarily pull you down but it can.

If it doesn't create suction it will still have eddies of water with downforce (and up on the other side of the eddy)
 

Jolly Roger

Yes. I am a Pirate.
Daedalus said:
Well they did show how a solid mass pulled the guy right down before the boat, so the answer is it depends on many factors. Something sinking won't necessarily pull you down but it can.

If it doesn't create suction it will still have eddies of water with downforce (and up on the other side of the eddy)

Just think of water as really thick air. When that mass was falling with him on top of it, a low pressure area developed above the mass where he was at, almost like the low pressure area above a wing. The mass sank quicker than the boat did, too, which generated a larger low pressure area.

I saw an experiment in a water tank, where a model glider was released at one end of the tank and it glided down the slope of the tank. It flew just like it was in air, except slower. In fact the eperical data gather on the glider performance in the water tank almost exactly matched the performance of the glider in the wind tunnel. Ain't Bernoulli's theorem great? It works in air, water, and raw sewage!
 

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
I think I'll avoid flying in raw sewage, thank you very much. Air has worked nicely for me so far. :)

The other thing to consider in the case of a sinking ship is the air that would be coming out as it sank. If you put a whole bunch of fizz in a liquid, won't it decrease the density and thus the buoyancy? That would make something that was ordinarily less dense (i.e. a person) sink in the temporarily less-dense mass.
 

Kycntryboy

Registered User
pilot
I would make it less dense (the more dense something is the more bouyant you are on in, i.e. your not bouyant in air because the molecules are to far apart, you are more bouyant in salt water than in fresh, because there is more crap in salt water) also that would create a huge high pressure column.
 
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