Squirrels can survive a fall from the top of any structure or natural feature on the surface of the planet, that’s true. But if you get a squirrel up high enough, to the point where the air is so thin that their terminal velocity goes way up, they can achieve a velocity which then causes them to burn up upon encountering the thicker air below. Of course, at that point, they have already perished from asphyxiation due to the lack of oxygen at that altitude. But assuming that you could equip the squirrel with a light duty pressure suit, then it might still be alive when it hit the friction. This and other ruminations are delved into at some length in the book “What If” by the author of the webcomic “xkcd”.
@kalma I’ve seen this before. Reminds me of the cleverness of Simone but executed in a different way. I hate to see how he will rig the house to catch his kid in the act of sneaking out, sneaking snacks… That should be entertaining.
Squirrels can survive a fall from the top of any structure or natural feature on the surface of the planet, that’s true. But if you get a squirrel up high enough, to the point where the air is so thin that their terminal velocity goes way up, they can achieve a velocity which then causes them to burn up upon encountering the thicker air below. Of course, at that point, they have already perished from asphyxiation due to the lack of oxygen at that altitude. But assuming that you could equip the squirrel with a light duty pressure suit, then it might still be alive when it hit the friction. This and other ruminations are delved into at some length in the book “What If” by the author of the webcomic “xkcd”.
@werehatrack
@werehatrack Part way through reading that I was thinking of re-entry roasted steaks.
Have you see the hypersonic wind tunnel videos Randall posted?
@blaineg Not yet, but I’ll go look.
@werehatrack
I think the author Dan Brown uses this “design possibility” in one of his books. Angels and Demons maybe.
Someone’s never watched Mark Rober’s Squirrel Maze.
@kalma Phat Gus FTW!
@capnjb @kalma How did her litter turn out?
@blaineg @kalma Kinda squirrelly.
@blaineg @capnjb @kalma TIL: Apparently it is called a scurry of squirrels.
@kalma I’ve seen this before. Reminds me of the cleverness of Simone but executed in a different way. I hate to see how he will rig the house to catch his kid in the act of sneaking out, sneaking snacks… That should be entertaining.
That video, in and of itself, was hilarious with how the squirrel ran between the legs of them men after it landed.