Staff Writer – Archi
Caribbean news. Scientists continue to get overawed by Usain Bolt’s feats. Now they have come to a funny but interesting conclusion after one in-depth study.
Bolt, the fastest man on Earth, is so fast that he could fly like a bird on Saturn’s moon Titan while wearing a wing suit, according to a new study.
The world-record holding sprinter, Bolt, has reached top speeds of 12.27 metres per second, which would be fast enough for him to take off on Titan while wearing a regular wing suit.
Theoretically, the Olympic athlete would then be able to soar above the planet — without any need for propulsion, said researchers at the University of Leicester in the UK.
Physics students at the university made the calculations in their final year paper for the Journal of Physics Special Topics, a peer-reviewed student journal run by the Leicester University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Titan is Saturn’s largest moon, and has a dense, nitrogen-rich atmosphere with a surface pressure almost 50 per cent stronger than Earth’s.
As a result, it has long been predicted that humans would be able to lift off into the moon’s atmosphere if they were wearing wing-type devices on their arms.
But now, the students have shown that it would even be possible with a regular wing suit used by skydivers here on Earth — provided you could get a fast enough run up.
World’s Fastest Man: Usain Bolt: Photo courtesy www.bubblews.com
To calculate the speed needed, the group factored in: the density of air at the surface of Titan; the acceleration due to gravity; an average wing suit wing area (approximately 1.4 metres squared); and the ratio of the streamline path of the air above the aerofoil to that below the aerofoil.
They found that, for a normal-sized wing suit, a run up speed of 11 metres per second would be required.
While not many people in the world can run at this speed, the fastest sprinters have been shown to reach top speeds above 11 metres per second.
Usain Bolt has clocked top speeds of 12.27 metres per second, meaning he would be able to take off as he got to the finish line of a 100-metre race.
The students also found it might even be possible for those of us who can’t reach Bolt-like velocities to spread our arms and fly — but it would be a lot less comfortable, and we would look a lot dafter.
Student Hannah Lerman, 21, from Mill Hill, North London said: “I thought it would be interesting to try it with a wing suit — something that you actually use on Earth. It is a really exciting idea that someone like Usain Bolt could actually fly unaided. It would give a whole new dimension to traveling.”
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