It's been a year since Felix Baumgartner jumped out of a balloon at the edge of space. To celebrate, Red Bull and RDIO will host a new documentary Mission to the Edge of Space: The Inside Story of Red Bull Stratos. The event will can be viewed for free on October 14 at 12 PM EDT at www.rdio.com/redbullstratos.
I still think that this is one of my favorite physics problems. Why? Why not. First, it's just a cool event. But other than that, the physics is both simple and complicated at the same time. The simple part is that there are essentially only two forces acting on Felix as he falls to the ground. There is the air resistance force and the gravitational force. The complicated part of this problem is the fact that the air resistance force depends on both the density of air and the speed of the jumper. Really the only way to model the motion in this case is to create a numerical calculation with a computer.
I've looked at many different aspects of this Red Bull Stratos jump. Here are a few of my favorite posts on the subject.
- The Physics of the Red Bull Stratos Jump. This is just an overview of some of the cool physics that you can see in the jump.
- How Do You Measure the Stratos Space Jump? This post looks at the techniques used to determine the speed of Felix as he falls.
- Why Didn't Felix Break the Free Fall Time Record? Although the jump was the fastest jump, it didn't last the longest. Why?
- How Bad Was the Spin During the Jump? Before he stabilized, Felix found himself in a spin. Here is an analysis.
- The Weight of Air. If you watch the jump carefully, you might notice that as Felix reduced the pressure in his capsule, the balloon went higher. This is because the air inside has mass and weight.
