@LindsayJoy: there would be no added acceleration - 102,800 feet is plenty of time to reach terminal velcoity, as is 130,000 feet.
So, from either height, he'll end up at the same speed.

Step666

@TonyRockyHorror & Veeber: and it's a perfect day too - no wind, no clouds not too cold (at least on the ground)

Fierock

Is it just me, or is it incredibly funny that the balloon flew away :p

but, if they will get the balloon, put it back and that guy still get's in this thing, he has big nuts, because if the balloon allready gets loose on the ground, what will it do at 40km above the ground :p

mr_owen

he won't be jumping today, afterall. his flight crew let the balloon slip away BEFORE HE COULD GET INTO IT, and it drifted away without him.

poor bastard...

TonyRockyHorror

Looks lilke he lost the balloon
[www.cnn.com]

Veeber

@SpeedyGonzalas:

I read the story.

And the story from the Times, and several others.

In 1963, that record was broken, at 102,800 feet.

BUT, do your physics, ad another 30,000 feet to that, the added acceleration from free-fall, and the fact that no *balloon* with a man has ever reached that high and its a whole other ball-game.

Don't assume Giz readers are stupid and make uneducated comments. Even the pretty blonde ones.

LindsayJoy

@LindsayJoy: haha HAND THIS MAN A TROPHY!

itscarmennnn

and he will not jump

shizik76

Uh...did any of you read the earlier story on this? Because if you did then you would know that
1. He is wearing a pressure suit.
2. The speed of sound varies according to air pressure.
3. It was done before, from a similar but slightly lower altitude. 96,760ft. IN 1957!

SpeedyGonzalas

@carmen89:

I know you didn't ask me this, bit in France they believe in the Darwin award!

LindsayJoy

@Fierock: hey, why can't he just go to his local insane asylum?!

itscarmennnn

@GiltProto: Thanks for that relevant factual information, now I can say I learned something for today!

@duckballs: yeah BC is nice, but you should give the rest of the country a chance there is a whole lot of it to see (for instance, men falling to their deaths from insane heights)... And if you're crossing the prairies at least get make some side trips off of the Trans-Canada.

@Taurich: It is probably impossible to beat the island in terms of beautiful places to live, too bad there are few industries there that provide decent paying jobs...

Fierock

@Kaiser-Machead:

Oh the last comment was directed at you....

:-D

LindsayJoy

I *only* drink Kettle One for the record. From one Allergic freak to another, I am allergic to all other alcohol. No joke.

And, although you actually replied to yourself for the curse response, I fully support having a hexing wand handy.

Now, I am ready for a nice public death, like the good ol'days with public beheddings and hangings. This guy is gonna die a very painful death. His blood is gonna boil. But most likely his balloon will fail. Its like Kevorkian + gadgets....whooo-hoo! Live broadcast!

LindsayJoy

@GiltProto: "This is my last dork post." EVER! NO!

nightsky

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! OH MY FUCkING GOOOOOOOOOODDDDDD!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

nightsky

ok... so 42 comments and not one Master Sargent reference? What gives?

froggy

Funny. The local weather station just predicted a 99% chance of stupidity falling from the sky.

D0rk

Plummeting towards the earth at supersonic speeds can definitely have its benefits. There's being able to fart then finally hear it when you reach the ground, there's.......there's.......................

KICKASS.

@LindsayJoy: I'd say that diet soda is probably even less healthy for you, but I'm a nutcase that drinks nothing but milk and water (in the non-alcoholic category) so what do I know :P

Kaiser-Machead

Tell me when this fucker jumps out of a plane...

itscarmennnn

@duckballs: It sure does! I moved from vancouver island to Edmonton for school and I was really kicking myself over the winter : /

Taurich

I wish him all the best. Can't wait to see the video (assuming they're making one) when it's available.

For those interested, the current record holder (who happens to be a personal awesome-hero-type-of-guy) is Joseph Kittinger: [en.wikipedia.org] . He jumped from 82,200 feet, and is still happily alive.

iStig

@duckballs: Which you of course would know, having lived nowhere but BC your whole boring life.

Pope John Peeps II

@Fierock: I've lived in BC my whole life, and it beats the hell out of the rest of Canada.

duckballs

Whoops, temperatures should be in C. This is my last dork post.

GiltProto

Oh, here's a good plot of temperature versus altitude. He'll be jumping from close to 25 miles where it's about minus 20F and between about 6 and 12 miles in altitude the temperatures are around minus 55 F, and that's where the speed of sound is a minimum.
[www.physicalgeography.net]

As an interesting side note I once calculated that the pressure on Mars is sort of equivalent to being at an elevation on Earth of around 70,000 feet.

GiltProto

I don't really get how this is a "wannabe supersonic skydiver"... I don't think it's quite possible for a skydiver to break the sound barrier; the fastest anyone has ever gone is 614mph, which is quite a bit shy.

packetsniffer

Above 25 km the atmospheric temperature rises and the speed of sound increases again. At 131,200 ft which is his expected jumping altitude the speed of sound is back up to 725 mph. Using an on-line NASA calculator it looks like the speed of sound is the lowest and relatively constant 660 mph from about 40,000 to 80,000 feet.

[www.grc.nasa.gov]

Excelsior!

GiltProto

@theorie:

That's the thing with records, they're made to be broken. And this dude is 64!

plailleur

nothing new here...

[www.aerospaceweb.org]

Captain Kittinger's third and final attempt came on 16 August 1960. He was lifted high into the stratosphere while riding in the gondola of the Excelsior III helium-filled balloon and reached a new record altitude of 102,800 ft (31,330 m). Kittinger's mark broke the previous record held by Major David Simons who had climbed to 101,516 ft (30,942 m) aboard the Man High II balloon in 1957. It took Kittinger an hour and a half to float up to his peak altitude, although a problem arose at 43,000 ft (13,105 m) when he felt a sharp pain in his right hand due to a failure in the glove of his pressure suit. Although the problem could have aborted the mission, Kittinger chose to continue.

Kittinger remained at his peak altitude, over three times higher than a commercial airliner typically flies, for about 12 minutes before he stepped off the "Highest Step in the World" to begin his fall to the Earth's surface. In addition to his pressure suit, Kittinger carried instruments and safety gear that weighed as much as he did. He also wore several layers of clothing to help protect him against the extremes of his high-altitude environment. During his fall, Kittinger experienced air temperatures as low as -94°F (-70°C)!

theorie

I, however do have a bit of experience in this area. I personally have done one skydive from a mere 24,000 feet, and had a close friend die from a 32,000 attempt. It's not the heat ( there is none ), it's the COLD. It can easily freeze up you oxygen breathing equipment, and it's very hard to hold you breath for 2 minutes while your heart rate is hovering around 200 or so ......
I do hope he has an altitude opening device in case he passes out.

gl123844

@The Sword Master: Why'd you leave, did you go to Calgary like everyone else?

As to things happening here, as a BC implant for almost ten years I've found this damn place always has some major story making headlines across the world, usually something sick and revolting.

Fierock

@mricyfire:

1) At terminal velocity, ALL skydivers are subject to 1g of force. It doesn't matter whether that is at 200mph or 2000mph. Since he actually has to slow down as he decends to normal atmosphere, he may actually pull 1.02g. The real problem is that he will suffer considerable buffering when he is transonic (Mach 0.85 to Mach 1.2).

2) Terminal velocity is just determined as the speed at which drag force equals gravity (remember that whole "1g" thing). Drag is directly proportional to air density, and at 125kft, air density is roughly 1/500th what it is on the ground. If terminal velocity while flared is typically around 100mph, it would now be 2230mph. The calculation to figure out his velocity profile over the drop is then some largish differential equation which I don't feel like solving at the moment, but as he accelerates, he gets lower and lower causing his terminal velocity to drop. He finally reaches terminal velocity somewhere around 800-900mph, and is slowly decelerating until he pulls the chute.

wagnerrp

@mricyfire:

Hey, this guy has 8600 jumps so far. At least he knows what he's about to do.

plailleur

@TheCyberBob: I remember hearing an account of an army pilot who bailed out and hit a thunder storm which kept him aloft for a LONG time. He wasn't happy afterwards.

Git Em SteveDave

@Fierock: Haha, you said "Saskatchewan".

I knew I shouldn't have moved out of there! Something interesting was bound to happen eventually.

The Sword Master

I can't wait for him to do this. Will they even be able to film it at all with him being so much? http://pixblix.com

AbeniGautam

@wagnerrp: Actually he will be falling at speeds up to mach 1.7, which is well past the sound barrier, especially in the upper stratosphere where the speed of sound is actually slower than at sea level.

The thinner atmosphere is also what prevents friction heat from being a problem at those speeds, because the same friction that causes heat also cause "terminal velocity". (if other skydivers don't burn up neither will he)

As he descends he'll actually be slowing down as the atmosphere gets more dense around him - by the time he deploys his chute at 3000 ft. he'll be falling maximum speed around 124 mph.

Anyways, I think he has failed to underestimate Saskatchewan's everlasting wind and will not be able to make the ascent - if he does though I'll be watching out my window since I'll apparently be able to see his balloon from my house/office

Fierock

@TheCyberBob: I dunno, probably choke the CHICKEN!!!!

boo-hoo, its too windy outside :(

B1663R

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I GO BACK TO SKOO TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!

Simpsons-Movie-ruled

Can the human body stand 770mph while not in a vehicle, but in the flesh.

I have gone skydiving and 120mph was more then enough to make your face pull back...7 times that I would expect that 1.) He will crush because his body cant handle the phase changes.

and 2.) when I went skydiving there is a maximum velocity (the point that you feel like your floating instead of falling) on what the human body would achieve in unaided freefall due to gravity...does this guy have rockets that are going propel him to 770mph?

mricyfire

@TheCyberBob: As a side note I'd bring along a newspaper... Maybe an etch-a-sketch...

TheCyberBob

So exactly what would you do on the way down? I mean it's going to take some time despite the fact that you're free falling. Like he'll be falling for like what? 10 minutes+ or something. Not too too long true... but still long enough that the initial view will get boring I'm sure.

TheCyberBob

@fastmike:

à demain ... Freedom Flies!

ANoel

Does this mean French Fries ?

fastmike

@dynosaulo: For further comparison, the speed of sound varies with temperature. At that altitude, the speed of sound is somewhere around 1050kph (655mph).

wagnerrp

@dynosaulo and Ryanraven: He will be considerably hotter than if he were just stationary, however since he's warming up from -60C, it won't be a big issue.

You don't need orbital velocities for heat to become a serious issue. While the Concorde at Mach 2.2 didn't have cooling problems, the SR-71 at Mach 3.2 certainly did. The aircraft skin would expand by several feet after warming up, such that the fuel tanks did not actually seal until they were at operating temperature. The canopy temperature was measured at over 300C after landing. Hypersonic vehicles are typically limited in range by how long it takes to boil off the cryogenic fuel used to cool the airframe.

Another minor note, plasma is formed by the material being so heated that the electrons fly off the atoms and become free flowing in the same medium. Ionization is merely a side effect of the process, not the cause.

wagnerrp

@LindsayJoy: Eww, Diet soda. Soda is generally unhealthy, I say as long as your going to drink soda drink the good stuff. Not that diet crap.

bbfreak

Yeah, hopefully he doesn't kill himself.

bbfreak

@dynosaulo:

You are comparing this to Diet coke and BBQ?

You know, I always drink diet soda. Can't stand the sugar. I guess i grew up on it, I'm familiar to the taste. I'd have a Big Mac + Large Fries + 3 piece Chicken Select with Diet Coke. Its just what I drink!

LindsayJoy

@dynosaulo: Just for comparison:

The speed of sound is of 1235 km/h (around 770 mph)

So its REALLY slow for that to happen...

dynosaulo

CHICKEN!!!!

B1663R

@Ryanraven: Actually, nothing gets ablaze just by falling through the atmosphere...

What happens is that the friction ionizes and turns the air in front of it into plasma. If the object's density is small, it could even become dust or something...

But anyway... the speed of sound is TOO slow for that to happen... this happens to spaceships because they enter the atmosphere at speeds like 15,000 or 20,000 km/h (9,315 or 12,420 m/h).

(i don't really know all this. I searched around the internet! =P)
(and sorry for the bad english)

dynosaulo

@Ryanraven: Yep... To me it sounds like the "kamikaze"s wearing helmets thing...

Or drinking diet coke while eating Barbecue...

Things like that...

dynosaulo

@Ryanraven: not sure of the science behind it - but the last record holder did not.. not sure if this would be any different.

baldingnerd

haha thats funny i live a few hours south of the guy i personally wish him well

Jad35

@baldingnerd: they? wtf was I typing...

THE GUY is going....

*sigh*

baldingnerd

Is the friction heat not a problem in this adventure. I just have a vivid imagination. maybe he'll catch ablaze on the way down? I need facts for why he wont!

Ryanraven

they is going to drop 100,000+ feet from a ballon and he's scared of a little wind?

baldingnerd

Godspeed, you %*$(#! %*(ing %*$) *%&# $*#( %*$(ing lunatic!

Hiphopopotamus