The Splat Calculator
This calculator simply calculates the ideal speed you're travelling at
the end of falling a certain distance. It completely ignores things
like friction (air, rock, rope, or otherwise). Climbing is dangerous.
Insert standard disclaimer here.
If you fill in the height, you'll get the time and speed at the end of your fall. If you're kind enough to supply your mass, you'll also get the energy in joules (newton-meters) when you deck. :-)
About the calculator
It's a javascript-based calculator. It uses a 10-iteration
implementation of Newton's method (see the source if you're curious)
to compute the square root needed for some of the equations, since
many browsers (er, like the netscape I use) don't support sqrt
internally. The formulae:
- g = 9.8 m/s^2
- Velocity at deck time: sqrt( 2 * g * height )
- Energy at deck time: mass * g * height
- Time to deck: sqrt ( 2 * height / 9.8 )
Equations verified, but also partly stolen from posters
on rec.climbing - the people who wanted the splat
calculator in the first place. Boggles the mind.
It's all
Clyde Soles
fault for suggesting it.
(Disclaimer on the picture: Please, I'm not advocating soloing. I'm
actually only about 10' off the deck).
Comments or suggestions? Email dga - at - (@) - pobox dot com.
(Sorry, no link, too much spam).
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Last updated: Sat Jul 23 17:46:52 GMT 2005
email: dga - at - pobox dot com.