Acommon belief is that a hole in a jet plane can suck a person out. on an episode of the popular tv series myth busters, hosts adam and jaime attempted to determine whether this is possible. according to the hosts' experiment, such an event cannot happen (that is, they "busted" the myth). but did they need to perform the experiment? as a science advisor to the show, adam and jaime ask you to perform a crude calculation to test the myth.
a typical jet plane travels at 532 mph at a cruising altitude of 31500 ft. the windows on a jet plane measure 14.0 in × 14.0 in. calculate the force exerted on such a window as the plane flies at 31500 ft above the sea level. assume the density and pressure of air at 31500 ft is 0.429 kg/m3 and 276 mbar but the interior of the plane remains pressurized to atmospheric pressure, that is, 1 atm.
calculate the fractional difference between this force and the weight wman, n of a typical adult male (185 lb).
f/wman =
how would you respond to adam and jaime?
a. there is no need to perform the experiment; it is impossible for a person to be sucked out of a plane.
b. my calculation does not prove that such an event cannot happen; you will need to perform the experiment.