Atmospheric reentry of a paper plane

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They folded a scaled-down version of the origami plane and placed it into the Kashiwa Hypersonic and High Enthalpy Wind Tunnel in Tokyo. Then they blasted it with Mach 7 winds — over 1,000 meters per second — for seven seconds straight.
Why does it feel like a "hold my beer" moment?

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Randall Munroe talked about something similar in his book how to, the conclusion for a paper envelope was basically: if it's slow enough to not burn up, then there's a pretty large range of places where it could land. And then other random objects: If it's aerodynamic enough to go somewhat fast, and there's no heat shield, it's probably going to burn up.

:D

Maybe I am not cultured enough: can someone explain the hold my beer joke?
 
TensorCalculus said:
Maybe I am not cultured enough: can someone explain the hold my beer joke?
IIRC, you are like 14-ish y/o, so give it a few years before you say "Hold my beer" and jump off a building with only an umbrella as a parachute... :wink:
 
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jack action said:
ah thanks you, I sort of get it now :D
berkeman said:
IIRC, you are like 14-ish y/o, so give it a few years before you say "Hold my beer" and jump off a building with only an umbrella as a parachute... :wink:
almost 14 yes (shudder, I will be... old... (joking)) - but it's good to know about more stuff either way!
Don't worry, will not be attempting not anytime soon :-p
 
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I just can't help but wonder how this passed peer review in an actual journal. It's a fun exercise, but contributes nothing to the field.