If you were shot by a grain of sand(at lightspeed)

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: astroidea

Originally posted by: Train
If you think about the bullet example I mentiond above. Obviously sand is a lot less mass, but theats WAAAAYYY offset by the exponential growth in speed.

Force = Speed x Mass, therefore a grain of sand at light speed is 1000000000 X times more force than a hypersonic 50 cal round.

If it flew within a thousand yards of you, you'd be ripped to shreds in under a second.

fail.. f=ma.. a=0, f=0
on the other hand, momentum = speed x mass. momentum is what makes an suv own a small car. But in this case, it'd probably wouldn't matter since the grain would go right through the body and thus little momentum would be absorbed.

The contributing factors to death would probably how the projectile would enter and exit the body and what body part hit.

If it went through like a needle, then I'd say it's unlikely there would be any death, even through the brain.

The acceleration (a) is due to the loss of speed when it hits you, not the gain of speed (zero) before. I have no way to know for sure, but given the very tiny surface area of a grain of sand, I doubt your body would decelerate it very much. With an average mass of say 10 mg for a grain of sand, it would take a deceleration of 10^5 m/s/s to exert 1 Newton on you.

 

[mugs]

Hmmmm... well, we take out tanks by hitting them with oversized lawn darts at about 3000 mph. I figure a grain of sand moving at the speed of light would have quite a lot of kinetic energy.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Here are some pictures and figures of small particle impacts at high velocity and projections to relativistic speeds
http://www.biblehelp.org/ufo4.htm

(This is all based off the assumption that the target actually stops the projectile though)

 

[phoenix79]

(Assuming the OP meant 0.9999999...C)What about the relativistic effects of the grain of sand traveling at that velocity? Would you wind up in the same time frame as the sand?

 

[Arkaign]

A similar concept is the interaction between us and neutrinos. These are exceptionally tiny particles that travel at incredibly high velocities, and they pass through us constantly without any discernible damage whatsoever. They do have mass as well, albeit they are still relatively tiny in scale :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fileroton_proton_cycle.png

 

[hiromizu]

I think you guys are thinking way too scientifically to the point where you can't even get realistic answers. In reality, you'll feel a small pinch and the grain will bounce right off. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[isekii]

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I think you guys are thinking way too scientifically to the point where you can't even get realistic answers. In reality, you'll feel a small pinch and the grain will bounce right off. Nothing more, nothing less.

If at all else i think it'll barely penetrate the skin and you should be able to just flick it off

 

[hiromizu]

Originally posted by: isekii

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I think you guys are thinking way too scientifically to the point where you can't even get realistic answers. In reality, you'll feel a small pinch and the grain will bounce right off. Nothing more, nothing less.

If at all else i think it'll barely penetrate the skin and you should be able to just flick it off

I think you're pushing it there. A grain of sand won't penetrate your skin.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Here are some pictures and figures of small particle impacts at high velocity and projections to relativistic speeds
http://www.biblehelp.org/ufo4.htm

(This is all based off the assumption that the target actually stops the projectile though)

Interesting site. Some weird conclusions they draw, but useful information nonetheless.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: isekii

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I think you guys are thinking way too scientifically to the point where you can't even get realistic answers. In reality, you'll feel a small pinch and the grain will bounce right off. Nothing more, nothing less.

If at all else i think it'll barely penetrate the skin and you should be able to just flick it off

I think you're pushing it there. A grain of sand won't penetrate your skin.

The only way you'd not be instantly vaporized is if the sand went straight through you and didn't slow down at all (or if it did slow down, only by a tiny amount). If the sand were to be stopped by your body, it would be like having several hundred atom bombs dropped on you.

 

[hiromizu]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: isekii

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I think you guys are thinking way too scientifically to the point where you can't even get realistic answers. In reality, you'll feel a small pinch and the grain will bounce right off. Nothing more, nothing less.

If at all else i think it'll barely penetrate the skin and you should be able to just flick it off

I think you're pushing it there. A grain of sand won't penetrate your skin.

The only way you'd not be instantly vaporized is if the sand went straight through you and didn't slow down at all (or if it did slow down, only by a tiny amount). If the sand were to be stopped by your body, it would be like having several hundred atom bombs dropped on you.

Earth to AstroManLuca (/gay flair), that won't happen.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: isekii

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I think you guys are thinking way too scientifically to the point where you can't even get realistic answers. In reality, you'll feel a small pinch and the grain will bounce right off. Nothing more, nothing less.

If at all else i think it'll barely penetrate the skin and you should be able to just flick it off

I think you're pushing it there. A grain of sand won't penetrate your skin.

If a spec of paint traveling at 3.6km/sec can wreck a $50,000 window on the space shuttle, I would think that a grain of sand a some percentage of 300,000km/sec could penetrate your skin

 

[darkxshade]

To the "you'll be vaporized" camp... what if said sand instead hit Earth from space at the speed of light? How big of a dent/crater are we talking about here?

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: darkxshade
To the "you'll be vaporized" camp... what if said sand instead hit Earth from space at the speed of light? How big of a dent/crater are we talking about here?

It'll burn up before it gets within 50 miles from the surface.

 

[dainthomas]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
A similar concept is the interaction between us and neutrinos. These are exceptionally tiny particles that travel at incredibly high velocities, and they pass through us constantly without any discernible damage whatsoever. They do have mass as well, albeit they are still relatively tiny in scale :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fileroton_proton_cycle.png

A neutrino has a mass of around .0713 x 10^-33g.

A grain of sand has a mass of around 12 x 10^-2g.

So a difference of 31 orders of magnitude. I'd say it would do slightly more damage.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: isekii

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I think you guys are thinking way too scientifically to the point where you can't even get realistic answers. In reality, you'll feel a small pinch and the grain will bounce right off. Nothing more, nothing less.

If at all else i think it'll barely penetrate the skin and you should be able to just flick it off

I think you're pushing it there. A grain of sand won't penetrate your skin.

If a spec of paint traveling at 3.6km/sec can wreck a $50,000 window on the space shuttle, I would think that a grain of sand a some percentage of 300,000km/sec could penetrate your skin

Yep, but it's also important to remember that at that speed, it's seriously unlikely for the grain of sand to be able to transfer much of the kinetic energy into the surrounding tissue, it would in all probability pass through almost instantly, losing precious little of the speed/energy in the form of damage.

It's just like the neutrinos, they pass through you at 999,999/1,000,000th of light speed with zero discernible damage.

 

[amdhunter]

Depends. Does the grain of sand take off?

 

[hiromizu]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: isekii

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I think you guys are thinking way too scientifically to the point where you can't even get realistic answers. In reality, you'll feel a small pinch and the grain will bounce right off. Nothing more, nothing less.

If at all else i think it'll barely penetrate the skin and you should be able to just flick it off

I think you're pushing it there. A grain of sand won't penetrate your skin.

If a spec of paint traveling at 3.6km/sec can wreck a $50,000 window on the space shuttle, I would think that a grain of sand a some percentage of 300,000km/sec could penetrate your skin

Yea but a space shuttle is flying at a few hundred miles per hour in space. In this case you're not moving and there's air n stuff to cause resistance. It's all relative.

 

[RESmonkey]

I'm going to work this out using mechanics for an inelastic and elastic collision. BUT it's probably not going to be accurate since things moving at such speeds are not in the realm of Newtonian mechanics, but left for QFT, which I don't know, yet.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: isekii

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I think you guys are thinking way too scientifically to the point where you can't even get realistic answers. In reality, you'll feel a small pinch and the grain will bounce right off. Nothing more, nothing less.

If at all else i think it'll barely penetrate the skin and you should be able to just flick it off

I think you're pushing it there. A grain of sand won't penetrate your skin.

If a spec of paint traveling at 3.6km/sec can wreck a $50,000 window on the space shuttle, I would think that a grain of sand a some percentage of 300,000km/sec could penetrate your skin

Yea but a space shuttle is flying at a few hundred miles per hour in space. In this case you're not moving and there's air n stuff to cause resistance. It's all relative.

What does that have to do with anything, or are you just trolling?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: isekii

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I think you guys are thinking way too scientifically to the point where you can't even get realistic answers. In reality, you'll feel a small pinch and the grain will bounce right off. Nothing more, nothing less.

If at all else i think it'll barely penetrate the skin and you should be able to just flick it off

I think you're pushing it there. A grain of sand won't penetrate your skin.

If a spec of paint traveling at 3.6km/sec can wreck a $50,000 window on the space shuttle, I would think that a grain of sand a some percentage of 300,000km/sec could penetrate your skin

Yea but a space shuttle is flying at a few hundred miles per hour in space. In this case you're not moving and there's air n stuff to cause resistance. It's all relative.

If it's moving at a certain speed at the moment of impact, why does it matter if you're in a vacuum or not up until that point?

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: hiromizu
Yea but a space shuttle is flying at a few hundred miles per hour in space. In this case you're not moving and there's air n stuff to cause resistance. It's all relative.

You're moving pretty fast right now, too.

 

[hiromizu]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: isekii

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I think you guys are thinking way too scientifically to the point where you can't even get realistic answers. In reality, you'll feel a small pinch and the grain will bounce right off. Nothing more, nothing less.

If at all else i think it'll barely penetrate the skin and you should be able to just flick it off

I think you're pushing it there. A grain of sand won't penetrate your skin.

If a spec of paint traveling at 3.6km/sec can wreck a $50,000 window on the space shuttle, I would think that a grain of sand a some percentage of 300,000km/sec could penetrate your skin

Yea but a space shuttle is flying at a few hundred miles per hour in space. In this case you're not moving and there's air n stuff to cause resistance. It's all relative.

If it's moving at a certain speed at the moment of impact, why does it matter if you're in a vacuum or not up until that point?

It matters because in space there's not a lot of air and on earth, there's air around you to protect you I guess. I don't really know what I'm talking about but I can't imagine you all to know much more either unless you're a scientist that specializes in sand hitting people at light speediology. I think they should do this on mythbusters or something. In any case, a sand grain can't hurt you, much less 'vaporize' you no matter how fast or how heavy it is. It's just a grain of sand people!

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: dainthomas

Originally posted by: Arkaign
A similar concept is the interaction between us and neutrinos. These are exceptionally tiny particles that travel at incredibly high velocities, and they pass through us constantly without any discernible damage whatsoever. They do have mass as well, albeit they are still relatively tiny in scale :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fileroton_proton_cycle.png

A neutrino has a mass of around .0713 x 10^-33g.

A grain of sand has a mass of around 12 x 10^-2g.

So a difference of 31 orders of magnitude. I'd say it would do slightly more damage.

Slightly, but still insignificant. People keep making the rather serious error of calculating the entire damage 'potential' of the grain of sand into their equations, which would require the target to contain enough mass and density to fully stop the grain of sand. With soft tissue like a human (even bone), and the speed that we're talking about, there would be no chance of transferring more than a tiny fraction of that potential energy into impact damage, the grain would simply pass through maintaining the vast majority of the energy intact.

Think of it another way. Take a safety pin and slowly press it into your skin. Okay, it causes your skin to deform, and if you continued this for very long, it would cause a good bit of damage. Now take something the same exact size of the portion of the safety pin that you're inserting/pressing against your skin, and fire it at your body at 5,000 feet per second, and it's going to pass through almost instantly (unless it hits something like bone, capable of stopping/deflecting it) and cause relatively little damage (unless you pierce your heart or some highly critical component. For the sake of the example, lets use the tissue at the very edge of your waist and above your hips for example, containing no vital organs.

 

[SSSnail]

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: isekii

Originally posted by: hiromizu
I think you guys are thinking way too scientifically to the point where you can't even get realistic answers. In reality, you'll feel a small pinch and the grain will bounce right off. Nothing more, nothing less.

If at all else i think it'll barely penetrate the skin and you should be able to just flick it off

I think you're pushing it there. A grain of sand won't penetrate your skin.

If a spec of paint traveling at 3.6km/sec can wreck a $50,000 window on the space shuttle, I would think that a grain of sand a some percentage of 300,000km/sec could penetrate your skin

Yea but a space shuttle is flying at a few hundred miles per hour in space. In this case you're not moving and there's air n stuff to cause resistance. It's all relative.

If it's moving at a certain speed at the moment of impact, why does it matter if you're in a vacuum or not up until that point?

It matters because in space there's not a lot of air and on earth, there's air around you to protect you I guess. I don't really know what I'm talking about but I can't imagine you all to know much more either unless you're a scientist that specializes in sand hitting people at light speediology. I think they should do this on mythbusters or something. In any case, a sand grain can't hurt you, much less 'vaporize' you no matter how fast or how heavy it is. It's just a grain of sand people!

You can't be serious...