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May. 23rd, 2007 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjornwildeToo much time spent geeking out on heroes, plots, physics and math.
Spoiler if you haven't seen the last Heroes.
Nathan could be still alive. It is even possible for Peter to have survived as well. Here's my argument with lots of math:
How fast does Nathan fly?
It took him 3 seconds to fly high enough to cause a contrail in the episode "Hiro's". The usual altitude contrails form is 8 kilometers so let's assume Nathan is flying 2.67 km/second. On the other hand, Las Vegas NV has a very hot climate and contrails usually form at -40 C but let's be safe and stick with 8 km.
How big of an explosion would Peter have caused (for this I am assuming Peter is 170 lbs.)?
The W-44 ASW warhead weights 170 lbs and has a yield of 10 kt. A 10 kt nuclear explosion has a full radius of 4.57 km. This blast radius would seem to cover the area of New York they have show to be effected. So Nathan would have had to get Peter at least 8 km away (I'm allowing for skyscrapers) from NY in order to have saved the city (let's ignore nuclear fall out, they probably will).
What is the speed of a nuclear blast?
Near as I can figure out, it is roughly 30.48 meters per .001 seconds. So the blast would have traveled at a rate of .87 km/sec. and thus would take about 5.25 seconds to reach the full blast radius. Nathan moving at 2.67 km/sec, can out fly the nuclear blast.
Assuming Peter could reform himself, how fast would he fall?
The terminal velocity of a skydiver in a normal free-fall position with a closed parachute is about 54 m/s. In this example, a speed of 50% of terminal velocity is reached after only about 3 seconds, while it takes 8 seconds to reach 90%, 15 seconds to reach 99% and so on. So for Peter fall to the ground from a height of 8 km would take 28 seconds and that is not allowing time for his body to reform if needed.
As I calculated before, the blast would last 5.25 seconds. Clare was able to heal herself after massive exposure to Ted when he was close to blowing up, I would say in a minute or 2. Peter wouldn't have to time to completely heal but would he have enough time to heal partially?
Now Nathan seemed to fly for at least 20 seconds, maybe 15 if you allow for editing to show the faces of the other characters to be happening at the same time. That means Nathan and Peter are 53.4 km (40 if you allow for the creative editing) away when the blast happens; if Nathan just kept flying.
So I think that Nathan would have had the time to not only fly Peter to a safe height but to fly himself far enough away from the blast to not have been killed. He would have also had the time to fly back and catch Peter. Whether Peter would be alive or even have a body is another matter. Then there's the massive radiation Nathan was exposed to.
So to sum up my math: Nathan would have needed to fly for at least 3 seconds to reach a height of 8 km to be far enough away for Peter to not destroy any part of New York. That would still leave him with a minimum of 17 seconds, or 12 for creative editing. Either way plenty of time to save himself and Peter; if Peter is able to reform his body or if he doesn't blow up with the blast.
My references:
About contrails
About terminal velocity
About nuclear blast radius', complete with a nifty google like map of how different sized blasts would effect New York.
About nuclear yields
The best site from which I was able to estimate how fast a nuclear explosion is, based on high speed photography.
I really need to get my next batch of audio books for my commute...meh mind it doth wander.
Spoiler if you haven't seen the last Heroes.
Nathan could be still alive. It is even possible for Peter to have survived as well. Here's my argument with lots of math:
How fast does Nathan fly?
It took him 3 seconds to fly high enough to cause a contrail in the episode "Hiro's". The usual altitude contrails form is 8 kilometers so let's assume Nathan is flying 2.67 km/second. On the other hand, Las Vegas NV has a very hot climate and contrails usually form at -40 C but let's be safe and stick with 8 km.
How big of an explosion would Peter have caused (for this I am assuming Peter is 170 lbs.)?
The W-44 ASW warhead weights 170 lbs and has a yield of 10 kt. A 10 kt nuclear explosion has a full radius of 4.57 km. This blast radius would seem to cover the area of New York they have show to be effected. So Nathan would have had to get Peter at least 8 km away (I'm allowing for skyscrapers) from NY in order to have saved the city (let's ignore nuclear fall out, they probably will).
What is the speed of a nuclear blast?
Near as I can figure out, it is roughly 30.48 meters per .001 seconds. So the blast would have traveled at a rate of .87 km/sec. and thus would take about 5.25 seconds to reach the full blast radius. Nathan moving at 2.67 km/sec, can out fly the nuclear blast.
Assuming Peter could reform himself, how fast would he fall?
The terminal velocity of a skydiver in a normal free-fall position with a closed parachute is about 54 m/s. In this example, a speed of 50% of terminal velocity is reached after only about 3 seconds, while it takes 8 seconds to reach 90%, 15 seconds to reach 99% and so on. So for Peter fall to the ground from a height of 8 km would take 28 seconds and that is not allowing time for his body to reform if needed.
As I calculated before, the blast would last 5.25 seconds. Clare was able to heal herself after massive exposure to Ted when he was close to blowing up, I would say in a minute or 2. Peter wouldn't have to time to completely heal but would he have enough time to heal partially?
Now Nathan seemed to fly for at least 20 seconds, maybe 15 if you allow for editing to show the faces of the other characters to be happening at the same time. That means Nathan and Peter are 53.4 km (40 if you allow for the creative editing) away when the blast happens; if Nathan just kept flying.
So I think that Nathan would have had the time to not only fly Peter to a safe height but to fly himself far enough away from the blast to not have been killed. He would have also had the time to fly back and catch Peter. Whether Peter would be alive or even have a body is another matter. Then there's the massive radiation Nathan was exposed to.
So to sum up my math: Nathan would have needed to fly for at least 3 seconds to reach a height of 8 km to be far enough away for Peter to not destroy any part of New York. That would still leave him with a minimum of 17 seconds, or 12 for creative editing. Either way plenty of time to save himself and Peter; if Peter is able to reform his body or if he doesn't blow up with the blast.
My references:
About contrails
About terminal velocity
About nuclear blast radius', complete with a nifty google like map of how different sized blasts would effect New York.
About nuclear yields
The best site from which I was able to estimate how fast a nuclear explosion is, based on high speed photography.
I really need to get my next batch of audio books for my commute...meh mind it doth wander.
