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Eli5: Do meteors burn on entering the atmosphere because of friction or because of air compression? (by Sparky)
eli5: Do meteors burn on entering the atmosphere because of friction or because of air compression?
So yesterday i did a presentation on the atmosphere in science class. The day before, I was researching for the presentation and i came across a sentence in the textbook that says meteors burn in the atmosphere due to friction with the air. I could've sworn I read somewhere that meteors burning due to friction with the air is a common myth.
Sure enough I found a sentence in Randall Munroe's What-If(one of my favorite books) that said meteors burn because the air getting compressed in front of them heats them up, not because of friction, which is what is commonly believed. Upon doing some googling I also found more or less the same idea on wikipedia and space.com.
We were gonna get tested on this stuff, so at the end of my presentation i asked the teacher about it, whether meteors burn due to friction or compression- personally i was sure it was compression, and i showed everyone the sources from what-if, space.com and wikipedia. (i should add i wasn't being a teacher- contradicting jerk, i asked politely and respectfully)
The sources i showed didn't look reliable enough to the teacher(IMO wikipedia is a reliable source but a lot of people disagree), she was very skeptical about the compression explanation, saying that if the air was compressed that much it would turn to liquid (or something along the lines of that) I also said air compression is why the pumps you use for party balloons get hot when you pump a lot(both my personal experience and from reading it somewhere), but she said that too was due to friction. Could anyone explain once and for all what is the truth? And if possible, could you cite scientific/reliable sources? every answer is greatly appreciated! thanks!
Source.
So yesterday i did a presentation on the atmosphere in science class. The day before, I was researching for the presentation and i came across a sentence in the textbook that says meteors burn in the atmosphere due to friction with the air. I could've sworn I read somewhere that meteors burning due to friction with the air is a common myth.
Sure enough I found a sentence in Randall Munroe's What-If(one of my favorite books) that said meteors burn because the air getting compressed in front of them heats them up, not because of friction, which is what is commonly believed. Upon doing some googling I also found more or less the same idea on wikipedia and space.com.
We were gonna get tested on this stuff, so at the end of my presentation i asked the teacher about it, whether meteors burn due to friction or compression- personally i was sure it was compression, and i showed everyone the sources from what-if, space.com and wikipedia. (i should add i wasn't being a teacher- contradicting jerk, i asked politely and respectfully)
The sources i showed didn't look reliable enough to the teacher(IMO wikipedia is a reliable source but a lot of people disagree), she was very skeptical about the compression explanation, saying that if the air was compressed that much it would turn to liquid (or something along the lines of that) I also said air compression is why the pumps you use for party balloons get hot when you pump a lot(both my personal experience and from reading it somewhere), but she said that too was due to friction. Could anyone explain once and for all what is the truth? And if possible, could you cite scientific/reliable sources? every answer is greatly appreciated! thanks!
Source.
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