[math-fun] meteorites

Warren>Here is the situation: A. meteor falls in at somewhat more than escape velocity, perhaps as much as 1.5X escape. This was Barringer's delusion. Stuff is falling in toward the *Sun*, 42.1km/s =rt2*Earth orbital speed, vs 11.2km/s Earth escape speed. So his impactor was (42.1/11.2)^2 ~ 14 times less massive than he thought, and was largely vaporized on impact. Then he had the great misfortune to discover that angled impacts make round craters, and drilled fruitlessly on. --rwg