Running in a vacuum

arknor · 27 Jul 2013 at 13:56

but how fast would he run in the centre of a tornado ?

StriderX · 27 Jul 2013 at 14:01

Probably going to get bombed with a nuke, but...how fast would he run from white supremacists, on ponies no less?

With "My little pony" T-shirts and Reddit stamped on their forehead.

Tokenbrit · 27 Jul 2013 at 14:02

Zefan said:
What a complete load of ****. Does an athlete run 100m much faster with a 30mph tailwind? No.

Uh, yes?

Raymond Lin · 27 Jul 2013 at 14:02

Zefan said:
What a complete load of ****. Does an athlete run 100m much faster with a 30mph tailwind? No.

Seriously, if you have to think about this for more than 10 seconds you need to have words with yourself.

Just for a second, staying with the tailwind topic for a 100m athlete.

If an athlete does not run faster with a 30mph tailwind then why is there a limit of 2 metres per second for the Olympics?

utajoker · 27 Jul 2013 at 14:08

did anyone else expect this to be about running in a vacuum cleaner?

Destination · 27 Jul 2013 at 14:10

They do run faster, significantly.
Thus the records can only be set at less than 2m/sec

Destination · 27 Jul 2013 at 14:11

As for motion and drag, lots of the so called drag will be due to friction against the surface of the ground, not base air resistance.
Else every single big haired woman athelete would (and indeed should) be fully skinned and trimmed

dcsarge · 27 Jul 2013 at 14:17

How fast can Usain Bolt run the 100m in drag?

Not sure I know the answer but I am sure they could use it for a Virgin Media advert.

Rainagul · 27 Jul 2013 at 14:37

1) Build Giant Vaccum Cleaner
2) Profit

On Holiday · 27 Jul 2013 at 15:04

The earth spins faster when Usain Bolt goes for a run.

doofer · 27 Jul 2013 at 15:13

Don't give it high revs or put it under unnecessary load for the first 1000 Miles.

Pawnless Endgame · 27 Jul 2013 at 17:09

I read somewhere that the brain uses 400 calories a day which is like 1/6th of the daily amount, so a small of the energy will go into that regardless of the activity.

Antar Bolaeisk · 27 Jul 2013 at 17:13

YarwoodUK said:
The earth spins faster when Usain Bolt goes for a run.

How much faster would he run at the equator than at one of the Earth's poles? (Assuming he's running against the rotation of the Earth)

Also, it's a low pressure day with no recordable breeze.

And he's been completely shaved and fitted only with the bare minimum of clothing.

Devrij · 27 Jul 2013 at 17:48

jwest said:
Just read this article on the bbc http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23462815

Apparently when Usain Bolt ran 100m in 9.58 seconds, "8% of the energy his muscles produced was used for motion, with the rest absorbed by drag"

So I'm wondering what sort of speed could he achieve in a vacuum, if his muscles are using 100% of the energy for motion, would obviously need some kind of breathing device.

In theory, if there were no resistance to motion, including friction inside his body, and his legs could survive moving that fast, he could run at an infinite speed since F=ma and the only force remaining would be that of his legs pushing forwards. But that's assuming quite a lot.

If he were just inside a vacuum... well he'd run quite slowly and die.

R.P.L · 27 Jul 2013 at 18:52

doofer said:
Don't give it high revs or put it under unnecessary load for the first 1000 Miles.

It's a relief that amongst all the crazy answers in this thread, someone can give a genuinely helpful and sensible response

Sliver · 27 Jul 2013 at 19:02

Some questions just can't be answered. /thread :rolleyes:

Genoma · 27 Jul 2013 at 19:05

reminds me of the eledged principles of the Hyerloop by Elon Musk

d_brennen · 27 Jul 2013 at 19:07

Sliver said:
Some questions just can't be answered. /thread

Every question can be answered, just some have to be answered "don't know"

Pawnless Endgame · 27 Jul 2013 at 19:18

d_brennen said:
Every question can be answered, just some have to be answered "don't know"

Or 42

Illgresi · 27 Jul 2013 at 19:23

Antar Bolaeisk said:
How much faster would he run at the equator than at one of the Earth's poles? (Assuming he's running against the rotation of the Earth)

To run requires a minimum of a two dimensional plane, a 'pole' is a point at which a straight line from the centre of the earth - around which the earth rotates - touches the surface, i.e. one dimensional. As such no movement can occur singularly 'at' one. You can only exist at a pole, and even then, only an infinitely small part of you at any point in time.

The closest he could do is run near one of the earths poles.