A Deadly Virus. On your flight out of South
America your cargo plane emergency-lands on a deserted island
somewhere in the South Pacific. Because it was a beach landing, the
pilot skids the plane on its belly rather than lowering the landing
gear. The landing is rough: an initial vertical drop followed by an
abrupt horizontal deceleration. When the dust settles, the pilot
and your scientist colleagues are all okay, but you know there
might be a big problem. Your team is transporting samples of a
deadly virus from a recent breakout in a small village. The samples
were packed in a cryogenically cooled container that has a special
seal that may leak if it exceeds an acceleration greater than
10g. The container has a mechanical accelerometer gauge
that measures the maximum vertical deceleration in case the
container is dropped. It reads a value of a =
7.10g. However, you are still worried: there was another
component of the acceleration. You get out of the plane and measure
the length of the skid the plane made in the sand as it landed: 164
ft. The pilot claims the plane’s horizontal speed on impact was 165
m.p.h.
Assuming the worst case scenario (i.e., that the vertical and
horizontal accelerations occurred simultaneously), and that the
horizontal deceleration was uniform, is it likely that the seal on
the virus container is compromised? Explain. (What was the total
maximum acceleration (in terms of g) that could
occur?)
A Deadly Virus. On your flight out of South America your cargo plane emergency-lands on a...
A Deadly Virus. On your flight out of South America your cargo plane emergency-lands on a deserted island somewhere in the South Pacific. Because it was a beach landing, the pilot skids the plane on its belly rather than lowering the landing gear. The landing is rough: an initial vertical drop followed by an abrupt horizontal deceleration. When the dust settles, the pilot and your scientist colleagues are all okay, but you know there might be a big problem. Your...