Not buying it

[unixronin]

This story is all over the ‘net today.  It claims a 14-year-old German kid was hit in the hand by a “pea-sized” meteorite, later found to be strongly magnetic (ergo, nickel-iron), claimed to be going 30,000mph, and that it bounced off his hand and hit the road, where it left a crater a foot across.  Kid claims the impact knocked him flying.

I don’t buy it.  I’m willing to believe that that’s what the kid THINKS happened.  But that’s not what happened.  Because the kid still has his hand.

And I’m sorry, but if a pea-size chunk of nickel-iron going 8.3 MILES A SECOND hits a 14-year-old kid in the hand, and the kid’s father is NOT named Kal-El, that meteorite is not going to “bounce off” his hand.  It’s going to turn his hand into pink mist and then continue on its way as though he wasn’t even there.

You want to tell me the kid was standing near where it hit, and a piece of flying ejecta hit his hand and the blast knocked him on his ass?  Sure, I’ll buy that.  I’d even buy that it missed him by millimeters and the plasma trail burned his hand as it went by, then the impast blast knocked him on his ass.  But an 8.3-miles-per-second meteorite hit him and knocked him flying, and left only a little tiny three-inch scar on his hand?

Bullshit.

But the story sounds sooooooo much more dramatic that way....

Don’t get me wrong.  It’s still an amazing story.  But it didn’t need any embellishment, and whoever just wrote down the kid’s version as is, without question, with all its logical inconsistencies intact, displays a severe lack of critical-thinking skills.

Update:  This MSNBC article is much less breathless and credulous, and is actually asking the right questions.

Comments

[ithildae]

The kid may not realize that he was not actually hit by the object. He knows that something hit him, and he went flying.

When we were studying momentum in physics, we calculated an inelastic collision of a car and a bug. How fast would the bug need to be moving to bring the car to a stop? It gives you some perspective on what would really happen. At 14, the kid probably just doesn't know. At least some news stories asked the right questions.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

If there was a small meteorite, it was almost certainly only going at a few hundred miles an hour. The reason why is that it would have already been slowed by the Earth's atmosphere.

Mind you, it was probably going miles-per-second when the much larger parent body HIT the atmosphere.

This is a common confusion, because really big meteors, hitting the Earth directly rather than obliquely, are very little slowed at all by their brief encounter with Earth's air.

And yes, if the meteorite had been going 8.3 mps, the kid's hand would have exploded. Violently enough that the shrapnel might well have killed him.

[rbos.livejournal.com]

yeah, though the thing apparently left a pretty hefty crater.

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

Yes, something that small would have slowed down to 'terminal velocity' of air at that point. But to leave a crater after hitting said hand ?!!!? - I also call BULLSHIT.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Don't you believe in miracles?

:-)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Gee, now that you mention it.... ;)

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Having seen what lower velocity particles (of the approx. 3000 fps .223/5.56 variety) can do to hands . . .

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

actually, the pea sized meteor also pass through his nut sack, grabbing some sperm, and then BACK IN TIME, hitting his then 19 yo mother in the uterus. so he's his own father! wow.

#

[lebo-superman.livejournal.com]

I don't remember having any relatives in Germany! LOL!

Seriously, though, all the questions you are asking are valid. The fact that he still has the use of his hand is acceptable proof that he didn't directly impede the path of the meteorite.

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, I didn't think of any of this. I concluded "bullshit" on totally different grounds.

The kid was standing at ground zero of a pea-sized meteor impact that was traveling ten miles a second, leaves a substantial crater, has enough concussive force to knock this kid on his ass...

Imagine how much force was behind the crater ejecta. The shrapnel alone would've turned his body into Julienne fries, and the gaseous ejecta would've given him severe burns at that close range. No Julienne fries, no flash burns? Guess it wasn't a meteoric impact that left a crater and knocked the kid on his ass, then.

[hrrunka]

A sorry indication of the ignorance displayed by all too may journalists. If they'd done a little basic fact-checking...