🤯 A visual physics lesson at 80 km/h.

[smellsofbikes@mastodon.social]

@anthropy @nexta At the height of Cold War madness, we did this with the A-5: it dumped its bomb load out the back on tracks at up to Mach 2, so it would have zero forward speed at release and drop straight down.
(It was never used.)

[smellsofbikes@mastodon.social]

@anthropy @nexta on rereading, it dump out the back at some speed but not mach2

[catmisgivings@stranger.social]

@nexta enthusiasts!

[phil@gotosocial.quokka.today]

@nexta "Enthusiast"

[gregsbrain@mstdn.social]

@peterbrown @nexta me too

[fancysandwiches@neuromatch.social]

@bodhipaksa @nexta yes, Jamie talked about this in an AMA recently

[stragu@mastodon.indie.host]

@nexta any chance this bot can can include alt text? Are replies monitored?

[knordstrom@techhub.social]

There's also a new podcast with Kari Byron and Tory Belleci called Mythfits and I think they referenced this exact video a few weeks back.

@fancysandwiches @bodhipaksa @nexta

[jbaggs@infosec.exchange]

@anthropy @nexta Yeah. There's a limited range of speed where you can use speed in the opposite direction to neutralize the effects on a living creature. Beyond that you're headed into Euthanasia Coaster territory.

[pvanheus@mstdn.science]

@nexta who was involved? I'd love to learn more about the planning that went into this.

[toddz@social.linux.pizza]

@smellsofbikes

Ah - I was just wondering what kind of bomb-launching railgun they had in the fuselage!

I'd never heard of the A-5's unusual bomb bay configuration. Wikipedia explains that the payload "was propelled rearward at about 50 feet per second":

North American A-5 Vigilante - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)

[blackburied@newsie.social]

@nexta many years back, ZZ Top did a similar experiment where you’d sit in a spherical steel roll cage and they’d roll you out of the back of a pickup truck on the highway at high speed.

All was documented in their incredible music: “Master of Sparks”

[binford2k@hachyderm.io]

@peterbrown @nexta same, I was watching the video looking for a car to show up

[pucetrailblazer@famichiki.jp]

@pvanheus @nexta IIRC this is a clip from the Japanese TV show ITTE Q, where Nakaoka travels abroad to visit this stunt company to do the stunt (Nakaoka is the one letting go of the spring, not the one in the slingshot).

[smellsofbikes@mastodon.social]

@toddz My uncle flew a lot of exotic stuff -- he's the only person I know with a Mach 2+ pin -- and he told me about the A5. I was quite young so I might be responsible for the inaccuracy.

[roadskater@mastodon.social]

@Kierkegaanks @nexta Where's the fun in that?

[menos@todon.eu]

@notsoloud @nexta xkcd relativistic baseball
You do not want to be the relativistic baseball.

[beanface42@peculiar.florist]

@nexta That’s impressive! Logical, but impressive!

[benjohn@todon.nl]

@nexta I worry that if I boost, other people might try this!

[thomas@social.zell-mbc.com]

@nexta this is really cool