Re: Air resistance

[John Mallinckrodt <ajmallinckro@CSUPomona.Edu>]

On Thu, 11 Dec 1997, Wolfgang Rueckner wrote:

> I have just joined the phys-l discussion group and am only catching the
> tail end of this thread which seems to have to do with what details to
> worry about when analyzing free fall in air.  My paper in the Am J Phys,
> vol 55, pp324-330 (1987) has some references that may be of interest to
> those of you interested in this topic.  I apologize if this is just a
> duplication of what's already been discussed.  Wolfgang

Welcome to the list and thanks for the reference to your article.  And,
BTW, no thread on phys-l ever has a "tail end."  Old threads never die; 
they just go into hiding for awhile.

I'll second Wolfgang's recommendation to take a look at this article
which--in addition to decribing a very neat (and high accuracy!) method
for determining local g from a single "freefall" drop--does have some nice
discussion of the relationship between the Reynold's number and drag
behavior as well as references to more complete treatments. 

John
-----------------------------------------------------------------
 A. John Mallinckrodt      http://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/~ajm
 Professor of Physics    mailto:ajmallinckro@csupomona.edu
 Physics Department       voice:909-869-4054
 Cal Poly Pomona            fax:909-869-5090
 Pomona, CA 91768-4031   office:Building 8, Room 223