Strange, peculiar things can happen in our lifetimes and only once. Perhaps something never witnessed by another ? Well, I was curious if anyone has seen this before, -

A squirrel up high in the tree 35-40', jumping from branch to branch, then SNAP! The squirrel jumped on a dead one and fell all the way down landing upon the grass with a loud thump!

It then squeals like a pig or whatever, (it must of hurt) and hops up, then hoofs it back up the tree, like nothing happened.

I was amazed. How could the squirrel live through something like that? It doesn't have wings, surely no parachute... It fell like rock lol.

Anyway, maybe you and others has seen something like that in your lifetimes. Something unique, -that defies all odds that many or all may never see. (?)

 

Another golfer and I were standing near a tree waiting on a third golfer to hit when a squirrel landed at our feet. He fell out of the tree from pretty high up. He lay there stunned for a bit then got up, wobbled over to the tree and went up again.

A couple of months ago, at the East Texas house, Maggie had 3 squirrels treed in the front yard. One of hem ran out on a limb and tried to jump to another tree on the other side of the fence. Didn't make it and landed with a "whump". Maggie was after it but it was up and skeedadaling thru the cyclone fence. About 30 seconds later, the second squirrel tried it with the same results. Then the third one tried it and he made it. Had to of knocked the breath out of them as they were pretty high. I was sitting on the porch enjoying the flying squirrel show.

 

That's pretty funny actually. Nature surprises me all the time. I wonder if the squirrel's light weight makes its terminal velocity low, so that the impact is not as severe? But who knows, I think that's looking too far into it haha. I guess evolution has made them pretty tough, otherwise a lot more squirrels would be dead from similar falls!

 

Several years ago when Maggie was fairly young, there as a dog up the street that was a little bigger than her and pretty aggressive. The neighbor dog came into our yard and started chasing Maggie. They were running full speed then all the sudden Maggie slowed and the other dog passed her. Now Maggie realized she was the chaser and she started growling, the other dog shut up, reversed direction and took off for home. I was laughing so hard I had tears.

 

Isn't terminal velocity the same for all things no matter the weight?

 

Yep, but you have to start from something like 250 feet to reach terminal velocity, at least for a person. Squirrels do have an advantage with their fur and tails, which will cause drag through the air.

I have seen videos of cats that have jumped from the top of a telephone pole and landed without injury.

 

2 days ago a bridge over interstate 5 fell 30 feet into a river just after rush hour. and no one died

 

Blue, I think you just stole Brew's story right after he just told it! Have you no shame? You'd think a moderator would have his own story to tell. Besides, if you were a little quicker you'd have that little bugger in a frying pan before he regained his senses.

 

Trick question..?

Technically no. Being the term only refers to the fastest rate in which the object is falling. That constant speed is its terminal velocity. That can be any speed or different speeds between 2 or more objects.

As far as the rate of speed in which an object falls, It has a lot to do with size and shape. 2 objects of the same weight but different shape can fall at 2 different velocities because of there shape. Air resistance determines that factor.

 

Nope, weight has nothing to do with vertical acceleration. The force of gravity is the same on everything no matter size or mass. It is a constant 9.81 m/s^2 or 32.2 ft/s^2. The only thing that changes this is the distance of the object from the center of the earth. The farther out it is the less pull gravity has one it. What causes objects to fall at different rates is the wind resistance. In a vacuum a feather would fall at the same speed as a boulder.

Terminal velocity is when the downward force of gravity is equal to the upwards force of wind resistance. Notice the units I used for gravity's pull, it is a distance per second per second or acceleration. At terminal velocity, the force of wind resistance in effect cancels out the acceleration portion of the equation and leaves only velocity.

 

Isn't terminal velocity the same for all things no matter the weight?

Only in a vacuum! Consider a skydiver, his terminal velocity will be roughtly 100 MPH until he opens his chute and then it will drop to about 5 MPH. Same mass, the only difference is the air resistance increases due to the much larger area from an OPEN parachute.

Back to original topic, I saw a squirel fall out of the top of a very large oak tree when I was kid. Whomp, whomp, whomp as he fell through the lower limbs and then THUD! when he hit the ground. He fell a good eighty feet but he got up and SLOWLY staggered off. It was funny as hell! I couldn't believe that it didn't kill him!

 

Yum! Fried rodent!

- Jack

 

So if I was taller then my hair wouldn't be falling out as fast?

 

Well I seem to have accidentally started a physics debate! What I really meant to refer to was that the squirrel's impact with the ground would be somewhat easy. It weighs 5 ish pounds so it didn't hit the ground that hard. If it weighed 100 pounds, it would have indented the earth. So I think it's low weight allows it to sustain high falls much better than another animal which would SMASHED into the ground, likely breaking it's bones. However, these falling squirrels could be like dogs that get hit by cars; sustaining internal injuries which are so bad that the pain is numbed in a sense, and their death delayed until the scamper forward a bit

 

On that point you're correct. The squirrel will have much less momentum when it hits the ground. Momentum = mass X velocity so the squirrel by reflex spreads itself out wide to slow down the velocity and its mass if low. Therefore the energy it displaces when it hits the ground is relativity low compared to a human falling from a tree.