[URL]http://www.explosm.net/db/files/Comics/Kris/tab.png[/URL]

[YOUTUBE]my0L2icGooU[/YOUTUBE]

[url]http://www.skepticblog.org/2011/12/15/united-states-beat-sputnik/[/url]

[QUOTE=cheesehead;293361][url]http://www.skepticblog.org/2011/12/15/united-states-beat-sputnik/[/url][/QUOTE]To which the answer is "No".

This myth has been debunked many times over the years. A small amount of steel travelling at over 50km/s through a thick atmosphere will be ablated very quickly indeed. Droplets and flakes will be scattered and slowed very efficiently.

[QUOTE=xilman;293370]To which the answer is "No".

This myth has been debunked many times over the years. A small amount of steel travelling at over 50km/s through a thick atmosphere will be ablated very quickly indeed. Droplets and flakes will be scattered and slowed very efficiently.[/QUOTE]

I know my first thought was that unless the steel cover was perfectly balanced that it would end up flipping end over end as it went up, which would likely cause it to veer to one side. Mythbusters had done something along these lines with a sewer system, and I vaguely remember the lids always flipping.

[QUOTE=xilman;293370]A small amount of steel travelling at over 50km/s[/QUOTE]I ran a quick calc and a high-speed camera of 1000 fps would need need a field of view of ~220' to have the disk appear in 2 frames.

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;293382]I ran a quick calc and a high-speed camera of 1000 fps would need need a field of view of ~220' to have the disk appear in 2 frames.[/QUOTE]But the disk would experience a period of acceleration. It can't instantaneously jump from 0nm/s to 50km/s. Once the air pressure has been dissipated then the disk starts decelerating. You would need to know the volume of air in the pipe and the size and weight of the disc (among other things) to start making estimations about the rate of acceleration.

[QUOTE=retina;293385]But the disk would experience a period of acceleration. It can't instantaneously jump from 0nm/s to 50km/s. Once the air pressure has been dissipated then the disk starts decelerating. You would need to know the volume of air in the pipe and the size and weight of the disc (among other things) to start making estimations about the rate of acceleration.[/QUOTE]

Known factors: 500' vertical shaft, Steel lid 4" thick weighing some 900kg. For calculation purposes, using FEMA's Unit Weights of Common Building Materials, Steel is listed at 496 pounds per cubic foot. This gives you roughly 4 cubic feet of steel in the lid, ~12 square feet of surface for the lid gives you a diameter of a little under 4 feet. The area of the shaft then would be roughly 6000 cubic feet.

oh well... time for science!
[URL="http://planethunter.org/"]http://planethunter.org[/URL]

[QUOTE=firejuggler;293544][URL="http://planethunter.org/"]http://planethunter.org[/URL][/QUOTE]Link fail:
Maybe you meant: [url]http://www.planethunters.org/[/url]

yup, thanks