BA in the Croc movie

[nebularain]

Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course is centered around a large crocodile in Queensland, Australia that swallows a vital piece of equiptment from a U.S. spy satellite that exploded. Here's how it went. The satellite explodes, this "black box"-like container falls through the atmosphere, bumps the ground (wouldn't it form a trench or a crater?), ricochets off a tree or something like that, and lands in the crocodiles mouth (wouldn't this object be scorching hot?), who then swallows it. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

Oh, well, it's a fun movie otherwise.

[amstrad]

ugg, I can't stand Steve Irwin the "Croc Hunter". Not only do I find his attitude and antics aggravating, but he has a very skewed sense of teaching children respect for animals. He seems to imply that one must wrestle an animal to the ground in order to study at it.

Far better, and far more knowledgable, is Jeff Corwin on the Discovery Channel. My wife, with an undergrad in biology, even approves of his scientifically correct lessons on environmental and evolutionary biology. Whats more, he respects the animals space, especially when in their own habitat. One might actually (ready for it?) learn something on this show.

Sorry for rant, but I just don't get what people see in this Steve Irwin guy.

[CJSF]

I guess I like Steve Irwin because of his unbridled enthusiasm. And I think he does educate, just in a different way. I certainly don't get the message that you have to wrestle everything to the ground.

And he reminds me of how I was as a kid (though I didn't deal with anything nearly as deadly), tromping through the woods and streams catching frogs, snakes and such.

To each his own...

CJSF

[Silas]

Perhaps one could say that
Jeff Corwin : Marlin Perkins ::
Steve Irwin : Jim Fowler

One's erudite and pedagogical...and the other has mud all over him...but you learn a lot from 'em both.

Silas

[Chip]

On 2002-07-15 09:04, nebularain wrote:
"...The satellite explodes, this "black box"-like container falls through the atmosphere, bumps the ground (wouldn't it form a trench or a crater?), ricochets off a tree or something like that, and lands in the crocodiles mouth (wouldn't this object be scorching hot?), who then swallows it."

If it were a small iron or rocky meteorite, (when it landed), it would be cold. The BA addresses this in this story about a meteorite.

I think a thin metal "black box" or other man-made object would probably burn up, though small leftover amounts of space junk could make it through the atmosphere if these pieces were inside a big piece of satellite that burned away. If the box was bulky but light weight, air resistance might slow it enough to keep it from making a crater when it hit.

[David Hall]

The one thing I can't stand about the CH, is that absolutely everything he sees is "the most incredible", "the most beautiful", "The most magnificent" [fillintheblank] he's ever seen.

Yes, Steve, they are incredible, beautiful, and magnificent. But you don't have to have a hernia about it every time you spot a new lizard. Let us have our own opinions about how wonderful the natural world is, will you?

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So, this black box bounces off of a tree? I suppose it might be possible, if everything else Chip said above is true. But I just can't really see it. Even if it didn't make a real crater or anything, I'm sure it would come in fast enough to plant itself into the ground a bit, especially if it lands in a soft ground area such as where crocodiles live.

Hey, which brings up something else. Why is this nature guy doing a (fictional) action story? Seems kind of out of place to me. And not really an appropriate forum for showing off wildlife.

[Silas]

re "bounces off a tree," that can -- and in fact did! -- happen. It was about a year ago, in Arizona (IIRC) in the middle of the night. Something whanged off a telephone pole, and crashed into a distributor box, putting out power to a small trailer park. They found pieces of meteoritic rock around the site. Later, they found a gouge in the ground that might have been the first point of impact. The rock, at impact, was estimated to be roughly golfball sized.

Silas

[nebularain]

Enlightning comments. However, in the movie, it was a very soft landing all around, nor was it as fast as one would think it should have been. Ah, well, the movie was quite obviously not trying to be too serious, anyway!

Let's see: the big ol' croc swallows the equipment, the mean ol' rancher widow wants to kill the croc because it ate one of her cows, the Irwin's who are in the midst of driving around and doing the things they do for the shows are called in to move the croc, the not-so-bright CIA operatives looking for the equipment begin thinking that the Irwins are secret spies, the rancher thinks the the CIA operatives are the conservationists called in to take the croc she wants dead, and the Irwins think the CIA operatives are the poachers! If you are into that kind-of humor, it's very funny.

About Steve, he's just a hyperactive type of person - very hyperactive. So he gets overly excited and carried away a lot. Plus, his primary job is running the Zoo and working as an animal conservationist. The show is more a highlight to their activities. He's not just educating about wildlife but trying to instill the need for conservation and getting people to appreciate the reptiles an such, which comes out well in the movie. Oh, and of course he has to wrestle the animals to the ground - look what kinds of animals he's dealing with! How else do you handle a croc or a six or more foot venemous snake or a giant lizard? He may be crazy, but he really isn't as stupid as seems to appear.

[beskeptical]

The Peekskill meteorite crashed through a car tail fender and landed underneath the car. And another meteorite crashed through someone's roof, bounced and hit a woman in the leg. It's a famous story, I've seen the picture but the name and place slip my mind for the moment.

The initial impact of the movie meteorite was probably enough to damage the tree, but it could bounce and then hit the crock more softly. It would likely have to have a melted, deformed surface unless it was protected until it reached terminal velocity. That's where the meteroite's force from its velocity in space peters out from the brakes of the air molecules. From there on it would fall to Earth by gravity alone.