PalletMan 0 #1 January 22, 2005 So I'm browsing the magazine rack and on the cover of February's Popular Science I see the big article called "The World's Fastest" . Intrigued, I buy it. Little did I know I could have read the article on-line. Oh well. The article can be found here: Popular Science: The World's Fastest I quote it below, but I rearranged some things to make it strictly slowest to fastest and added some things from the print article not found in the on-line version. Quote .00000000709 mph Pacific Plate: World’s Fastest Tectonic Plate Drifting northwest at the lightning pace of four inches a year, the Pacific Plate, which stretches from California to Japan below the ocean floor, clocks in at 24 times as fast as the slowest of the dozen rocky sheets that compose the Earth’s crust. .0000151 mph Qori Kalis: World’s fastest-receding tropical glacier Qori Kalis, a glacier that lies at above 18,000 feet in the Peruvian Andes, is melting at a rate of nearly 700 feet a year. In 2002, Ohio State University paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson discovered a perfectly preserved Distichia muscoides, a moss-type plant that carbon dating measured as 5,200 years old, on the Qori Kalis. “The find was remarkable,” he says. “This tells us the glacier hasn’t been this small for more than 5,000 years.” Part of the 17-square-mile Quelccaya, the world’s largest tropical ice sheet, the Qori Kalis is now shrinking 40 times as fast as rates witnessed in the mid-1970s, when Thompson first traveled there. “We’re seeing an exponential acceleration in the melting trend,” he says, noting that every tropical glacier studied with time-lapse photography is melting. By current rates of retreat, the entire Quelccaya will be gone in 50 years. If the world’s mountain glaciers melt completely, he says, the resulting half-meter rise in sea level would displace up to 100 million people in coastal areas around the globe. .0000237 mph Bamboo: World’s fastest-growing plant Bamboo grows up to three feet a day, more than 30 percent faster than any other plant. Parenchymal cells within the stem divide at a rapid rate to provide structural support for the woody grass. The result? Bamboo has one of the highest strength-to-weight ratios of any plant species. 5.17 mph Alexander Popov: World’s Fastest Swimmer Popov swam the 50-meter freestyle in 21.64 seconds at the summer 2000 Russian national championships. The 6'6" swimmer’s disproportionately large feet enable his tremendous kick. 11.6 mph Paula Radcliffe: World’s fastest female marathon runner In 2002, English track star Paula Radcliffe won the Chicago Marathon with a world-record-breaking time of two hours, 17 minutes and 18 seconds. Then, less than a year later, she ran the 2003 Flora London Marathon and finished in 2:15:25—beating her own record by nearly two minutes and slicing an unprecedented three minutes off her closest competitor. In a sport where speed improvements are marked in seconds, not minutes, Radcliffe redefines the rate of human performance gains. Prior to her record-smashing run, it had taken 16 years for women to knock a minute and 20 seconds off the world record. Radcliffe, 31, combines extreme training with breakthrough technology. Most of her practice sessions are logged at altitude near Font Romeu in the French Pyrenees or in Flagstaff, Arizona, where running in the thin alpine air boosts the oxygen-transporting red blood cells that are crucial to endurance. And two years ago, she began working with Nike engineers to design a marathon shoe. In Nike’s Beaverton, Oregon, design lab, she ran on a specialized treadmill coupled with high-speed 3-D cameras that analyze foot strike, pressure and alignment. The result, the 6.8-ounce Zoom, is also available to mortals ($85). 22 mph Pacific Leatherback: World’s fastest turtle 22.9 mph Tim Montgomery: World’s fastest runner 35 mph Jackrabbit: World’s fastest rabbit 37.6 mph Secretariat: World’s fastest thoroughbred In the 1973 Kentucky Derby, Secretariat set a record that has remained unbroken for 30 years. Autopsy records show that the horse’s heart weighed a hefty 21 pounds, three times the average for a thoroughbred his size. 37.6 mph Taipei 101: World’s fastest elevator Two 24-passenger cars zip at a rate of up to 55 feet a second up Taiwan’s new 1,667-foot Taipei 101 tower. Spoilers that control noise levels, tuned weights that damp vibrations, and computer-controlled air pressure make the quarter-mile, 39-second trip bearable. 60 mph Cheetah: World’s fastest land animal 81 mph Sam Whittingham: World’s fastest self-propelled man The self-propelled land-speed record was set in October 2002, when Canadian Sam Whittingham reached 81 mph inside a bullet-shaped recumbent bicycle on a flat course in Battle Mountain, Nevada. Whittingham’s victory was attributed to his low body weight and particularly low-riding bike. 105.6 mph The Fetish: World’s fastest production electric car Released last September from Monaco-based Venturi Automobiles, the low-slung Fetish is the world’s first commercially available electric-powered sports coupe. The two-seater has an air-cooled 180-kilowatt engine that generates the equivalent of 300 horsepower and revs instantly to 14,000 rpm, allowing the car to accelerate from 0 to 60 in 4.5 seconds, performance that trumps a Porsche Boxster. Although electric-powered research cars have traveled faster—Ohio State University’s student-designed Buckeye Bullet set a new electric land-speed record of 314.96 mph last October —the Fetish is built for everyday driving. The car uses the latest generation of lithium-ion batteries to power it for more than 200 miles on a single charge. The price tag: $660,000. 128 mph Kingda Ka: World’s Fastest Roller Coaster When it debuts at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey, this April, the Kingda Ka will blast from a standstill to 128 mph in 3.5 seconds, ousting Cedar Point’s Top Thrill Dragster in Sandusky, Ohio, for bragging rights as the world’s fastest thrill ride. Maryland-based coaster maker Intamin developed the $25-million ride with a hydraulic catapult rated at 12,000 horsepower, a technology inspired by a previous generation of steam catapults used to hurtle U.S. Navy jets off the decks of aircraft carriers. The Kingda Ka’s launch catapult produces explosive acceleration by releasing compressed hydraulic fluid and nitrogen gas stored in small tanks at pressures of up to 4,500 pounds per square inch. The system consumes three megawatts of power and can be fired and reloaded every 45 seconds, enabling the coaster to carry 1,400 riders an hour. After blasting out of the station and reaching maximum speed, the ride tips skyward and ascends to a record height of 456 feet before nosing more than 90 degrees into a 41-story plunge embellished by a 270-degree spiral twist. The Ka then careens up a second 129-foot hill, allowing riders to experience a few seconds of weightlessness before sweeping back to Earth. From beginning to end, the G-force madness lasts 50 seconds. 217 mph Ferrari Enzo: World’s fastest production car 267 mph Maglev: World’s fastest train Since December 29, 2003, Transrapid’s Shanghai Maglev has traveled the 19 miles between the Chinese city’s financial district and its airport in less than eight minutes, hitting a maximum speed of 267 mph. Levitated on a magnetic field, the train floats half an inch above its track and frictionlessly rides a magnetic wave. 600 mph Citation X: World’s fastest civilian airplane now in operation 761 mph Speed of sound 763 mph Thrust SSC: World’s fastest car Roaring down a mile of desert in 4.7 seconds in 1997, the Thrust became the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier. The 10-ton car was powered by two 25,000-pound-thrust Rolls-Royce Spey Mk205 jet engines built for a British variant on the F-4 Phantom fighter plane. 1,450 mph Russian TU-144D: World’s fastest civilian airplane ever in operation 2,400 mph Speeding bullet 3,409 mph Lockheed Martin LOSAT: World’s fastest missile Fired from a Humvee, the LOSAT (Line-of-Sight Anti-Tank weapon) tops out at more than 5,000 feet a second—twice as fast as most ground- and air-launched missiles. The weapon, which will debut next year, has a five-mile range and is propelled by a solid-rocket motor. It employs no explosives; kinetic energy alone drives a penetrator rod into an enemy tank. 6,800 mph X-43A Scramjet: World’s fastest aircraft On November 16, 2004, NASA’s dart-shaped, X-43A scramjet streaked above the Pacific at Mach 9.8, shattering the existing world aviation speed record of Mach 6.8, set last March by another X-43A scramjet flight. Carried aloft under the wings of a B-52B bomber, the X-43A was launched at an altitude of 40,000 feet. The 12-foot, unmanned research plane was the swan song of NASA’s $230-million, eight-year-long Hyper-X program, which tested the alternative engines that will propel the next generation of space vehicles and, perhaps, civilian airliners. Scramjets—engines that generate combustion from compressed supersonic air and gaseous hydrogen fuel—could power aircraft up to Mach 15, potentially cutting an 18-hour flight from New York to Tokyo down to two hours. 17,895 mph The JASPER: World’s fastest land-based projectile Last year, researchers studying how America’s nuclear stockpile will age began testing the properties of plutonium with a gas gun capable of firing a 25-gram projectile that flies 36 times as fast as a typical bullet. The 30-meter JASPER, operated by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, fires in two stages. A powdered propellant provides the initial propulsion, and then a blast of compressed hydrogen triggers the extreme velocity. Projectiles 28 millimeters in diameter are shot into nickel-size plutonium targets linked with sensors that measure the material’s reaction. The pressure of the impact exceeds 600 gigapascals—six million times the pressure of surface air, and representative of conditions that would exist in a nuclear detonation. 24,759 mph Apollo 10: World’s fastest manned spacecraft In May, 1969, returning from a dress rehearsal for the first moon landing, Tom Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan rode the command module of Apollo 10 as it entered the atmosphere at a steeper angle than any other spaceship before or since. Their top speed of 25,000 mph is the fastest any human has ever traveled. 131,979 mph Mercury: Fastest solar system object Like the last few rapid spins of a dropped ring before it disappears down the sink drain, Mercury is whipping around an ellipse deep inside the sun’s gravity well. The fastest of all large objects in our solar system, Mercury’s speed is greatest when it is closest to the sun. 158,000 mph Helios Probes: World’s fastest man-made space objects Launched into narrow elliptical orbits in 1974 and 1976, the Helios 1 and 2 probes move fastest as they skim the sun slightly inside Mercury’s orbit. At their farthest out, they reach nearly to the Earth’s orbit and slow to one fifth of their top speed. 670,616,628.99 ... mph Cosmic ray: Fastest known object in the universe A cosmic ray detected by the Fly’s Eye I detector near Salt Lake City on October 15, 1991, was traveling so fast that if it raced a beam of light across the galaxy, it would lose by only five millimeters. Fifteen similar, but slightly slower, cosmic rays have been detected since, but scientists still don’t know how they are formed. 670,616,629 mph Speed of light Breakneck Bugs World’s fastest insect life cycle Bird cherry-oat aphids (Rhopalosiphum pady) take 4.7 days to complete one full generation, from the birth of one insect to the birth of that insect’s offspring. Instead of laying eggs, aphids, like vertebrates, spawn live young, which allows the species to reproduce faster than any other insect. World’s fastest bite Trap-jaw ants (Odontomachus bauri) can open and close their microscopic jaws in 0.33 millisecond, clenching their teeth 1,000 times as fast as the blink of an eye. Tiny muscles within the jaw operate like loaded springs and give the bug a biomechanical advantage in preying on fast-moving insects. The ant’s bite is faster than any other recorded animal movement, including the jellyfish’s infamous 0.5-millisecond stinger release. World’s fastest wingbeat The midge (genus Forcipomyia) beats its wings 1,046 times a second. Hummingbirds, in comparison, flap their wings about 100 times a second. World’s Fastest Supercomputer Every person on Earth would need to perform 100,000 calculations a second in order to equal the power of IBM’s Blue Gene, which posted a new record speed last November. Since 1976, when the original supercomputer, the Cray-1, debuted, supercomputer speed has increased by a factor of 450,000. When fully complete this June, Blue Gene’s projected speed will be almost five million times that of the Cray-1. Blue Gene’s power—achieved by 131,072 IBM PowerPC 440 processors—is already twice as great as the previous record set just last May. World’s Fastest Computer Virus MyDoom surfaced on January 26, 2004, racing across the Internet at a rate of up to 12,000 computers an hour and striking more than 500,000 machines within a week. The virus e-mailed itself to addresses stored on the user’s machine and created a “back door” on the user’s hard drive, which allowed its unidentified creators to remotely broadcast spam over the Internet. When MyDoom peaked three days after its initial outbreak, one of every 10 e-mails circulating on the Internet carried the virus—nearly twice as many as had been affected by any previous computer bug. The U.S.’s Fastest Recorded ... Temperature Swing Loma, Montana saw a rise of 103?F between January 14 and 15, 1972. The low was –54?, the high 49?. The change was caused by a rapid shift in fronts: An arctic high-pressure system was replaced by milder westerly winds that warmed significantly as they moved east of the mountains. Rainfall Between July 25 and 26, 1979, tropical storm Claudette dropped 43 inches of rain near Alvin, Texas. Claudette’s proximity to the coast fed the system with moisture, boosting its strength as it formed a tight weather loop over southeastern Texas that ultimately caused $700 million in damage. Snowfall 75.8 inches of snow fell in Silver Lake, Colorado, between April 14 and 15, 1921. The more than six feet were dumped by a slow-moving storm system that rolled eastward over Silver Lake and was stalled by the bulk of the Rocky Mountains. Sky-div'ing (ski'div'ing) n. A modern sport that involves parties, bragging, sexual excesses, the imbibing of large quantities of beer, and, on rare occasions, parachuting from aircraft. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freeflir29 0 #2 January 22, 2005 Dude........How the hell did they leave out the The World's Fastest Dropzone.Commer? Everyone knows it's Amazon! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GravityGirl 0 #3 January 23, 2005 Where's the worlds fastest Woman!!!! Amazon? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Peace and Blue Skies! Bonnie ==>Gravity Gear! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #4 January 23, 2005 QuoteWhere's the worlds fastest Woman!!!! Not officailly yet.... just wait till Jun in the UK... THEN it will be official All those really fast practice runs do not count.. It has to be posted in competition. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gravityizsexy 0 #5 January 23, 2005 That was crazy cool... didn't know that stuff.... neat! "'Someday is not a day in my week'" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bobsled92 0 #6 January 23, 2005 MARK CALLAND: The Worlds fastest recorded skydiver. 316mph in Hilbastow, Eng. (see link below) I am still working on getting past my 249mph mark._______________________________ If I could be a Super Hero, I chose to be: "GRANT-A-CLAUS". and work 365 days a Year. http://www.hangout.no/speednews/ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freeflir29 0 #7 January 23, 2005 QuoteAll those really fast practice runs do not count.. It has to be posted in competition. Should I shave my entire body and then grease up for the camera slot. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #8 January 23, 2005 QuoteI am still working on getting past my 249mph mark Get rid of that dayum Bumper suit man.. last time I went really fast in mine the bumpers about beat me to death Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bobsled92 0 #9 January 23, 2005 I'm jumping in slick top and shiney finsh cordura pants now_______________________________ If I could be a Super Hero, I chose to be: "GRANT-A-CLAUS". and work 365 days a Year. http://www.hangout.no/speednews/ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slug 1 #10 January 23, 2005 QuoteI'm jumping in slick top and shiney finsh cordura pants now Cordura Well if your the champ sounds good to meJIC your not I was thinking something with a low coefficient of friction like the skaters or the luge racers in the olympics. Amazon you could borrow Valinda's shiny black suit It should streatch a little & fit like a OJ gloveLMAO the dudes are loading amazon on the plane for the speed trials from a backboard because the suit is tight enough to keep you in the most efficient aerodynamic position with zippo drag We want pic's Please don't hurt me again....to much Go fast girl ....I mean general....you know what I mean R.I.P. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bobsled92 0 #11 January 23, 2005 I still have my Bobsled suit & a Luge suit that I got from a Latvian Luge coach. The thing is: fall like a dart. Mark Calland, of England, wears a slick top and special pants that actually inflate down the calves to the feet. 1 air scoop on each leg to inflate and his feet are covered with cone like cuffs. I feels like you are balancing on you head, at speed. an ALL slick suit makes you unstable and I need more work before considering the though of 100% slick for competition. (not ALL full suit help you get top speed due to loss of stability)_______________________________ If I could be a Super Hero, I chose to be: "GRANT-A-CLAUS". and work 365 days a Year. http://www.hangout.no/speednews/ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
courage 0 #12 January 23, 2005 So, Jeanne. What have you been up to, lately? Hear you have been going fast in practice, but nevertheless I'd like to post something on www.speedskydiving.com about you. England in June? Great! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
courage 0 #13 January 23, 2005 We compete to get the highest "meet result". A meet result is your best 3 jumps out of 6. World Record Meet Result: Marco Wiederkehr, Liechtenstein, 483 km/h ~ about 302 mph. Worlds Fastest Speed Skydive: Marco Wiederkehr, 502 km/h ~ about 314 mph. Mark Calland of England won the World Cup in 2004, and was the first one to win all meets in one year, call it a Grand Slam if you want to. Great achievement. He has also been faster than 500 km/h several times in practice, but not yet in competition. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slurp56 0 #14 January 23, 2005 Some of these made me question the reliability of the info. Its a fun read, but when I got to the Ferrari Enzo as the fastest speed of 217MPH, I had to do a little googling. "The McLaren F1 holds several records, including the highest top speed (240.1 mph) and the fastest lap speed on a UK circuit (195.3 mph)." Although I am not sure if the McLaren time was recorded as a dyno top speed or an actual physical testing. Let alone, the definition of production car. And I thought I recalled the fastest a person has ran, was closer to about 28MPH? However I dont know if this article was covering a span of time or a burst effort. definately cool info though.________________________________________ I have proof-read this post 500 times, but I guarantee you'll still manage to find a flaw. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bobsled92 0 #15 January 23, 2005 Hi Ken! I have a long.......way to go. I stopped jumping with the RW suit. (most of which is form and in my head) I tell people about your 297mph in t-shirt and jeans I felt that the Booties on my suit caused me to stear too much. Going for some frozen speed jumps next week. (Jet Ranger Heli too_______________________________ If I could be a Super Hero, I chose to be: "GRANT-A-CLAUS". and work 365 days a Year. http://www.hangout.no/speednews/ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
courage 0 #16 January 23, 2005 Quote I tell people about your 297mph in t-shirt and jeans I had a series of good jumps when I got that one in. Fastest pair of jeans in the world, I guess, but I would've liked to break that 300 mph barriere Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quattro4Life 0 #17 January 23, 2005 QuoteSome of these made me question the reliability of the info. Its a fun read, but when I got to the Ferrari Enzo as the fastest speed of 217MPH, I had to do a little googling. "The McLaren F1 holds several records, including the highest top speed (240.1 mph) and the fastest lap speed on a UK circuit (195.3 mph)." Although I am not sure if the McLaren time was recorded as a dyno top speed or an actual physical testing. Let alone, the definition of production car. the mclaren top speed run was done on a track (i even have the video), and its flat-land adjusted speed is over 243mph. it was a production car, as it is road certified, although only 64 were produced. -bI'm not the percent you think survives, I need sanctuary in the pages of this book... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BillyVance 34 #18 January 23, 2005 QuoteQuoteWhere's the worlds fastest Woman!!!! Not officailly yet.... just wait till Jun in the UK... THEN it will be official All those really fast practice runs do not count.. It has to be posted in competition. Cool, you'll meet Alan Thompson then! World's fastest woman vs world's fastest deaf skydiver... "Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #19 January 23, 2005 Well when I CAN get in a jump or two I have to do a Speed run for fun...The most fun was from 21k at ELoy.. just a 293 top speed with an overall jump average of 250.. 61 sec delay from 21k but I broke off from the dive at 7k... it was feeling WAY too freeky and LONG going that fast. I really need to figure out how to DL the two protracks so I can get a psuedo official graph like the competitions. I have posted a bunch of jumps that have overall averages for jumps well over my meet results from Jumptown. Now I am just trying to get the time off and get my tickets for Hibaldstow and Gryttjom. Morrocco is not an option...I learned a long time ago that I just do not belong in Islamic countries...fully covering my whole freakin body when its over 100 degrees F is reallllly STUPID. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
piisfish 140 #20 January 23, 2005 QuoteMorrocco is not an option...I learned a long time ago that I just do not belong in Islamic countries...fully covering my whole freakin body when its over 100 degrees F is reallllly STUPID.I don't believe Morrocco is an Islamic country... Muslim certainly... And noone there will force you to cover yourself entirely, except if you visit religious places. But this belongs to another forum...scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #21 January 23, 2005 By all means.. I would LOVE to hear your stories about being a single woman in a Muslim country... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slug 1 #22 January 23, 2005 QuoteBy all means.. I would LOVE to hear your stories about being a single woman in a Muslim country... Just wear the Valinda speed suit no one will mess with you, be sure you can move your arms and legs though. We had a friend that did two years in Morroco with his wife (a red head BTW). She told us the story's about going to the market with her girlfriend and getting pinched on the butt in the crowds. Don't know if the women got to drive or not but going to the market was OK. They were still in Morroco just before desert shield started and they were evac'd out on 24 hr's notice. R.I.P. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
piisfish 140 #23 January 23, 2005 QuoteBy all means.. I would LOVE to hear your stories about being a single woman in a Muslim country... even have lesbian friends travelling together in Morrocco and not having problems... But they weren't single Usually blondes/blue eyes get more attention...scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
