Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not into hurting anything myself. I have been known to shed tears over broken birds beside the roadway.
The think is that I can't see this hurting a squirrel. Those bastards launch themselves between trees and occasionally MISS. I'm not actually hot to give something like this a try but I have a mental image of the squirrel landing, running up the nearest tree, looking around for a minute, then going off to find the nut he was catapulted with.
animals that small almost always land safely. they don't have enough mass to do themselves a lot of harm (when you factor in wind resistance). You can, for example, drop a field mouse from orbit and it'll land just fine (barring re-entry flames).
then again, depending on how tight that catapult was wound, it may have been moving faster than it should have. But I think it's at least possible to set up a trap like that which wouldn't harm the animal.
IIRC, terminal velocity for an adult human (in Earth gravity / Earth atmosphere) is around 70 MPH spread-eagle and around double that in a streamlined diving posture ... but I'm taking no bets on how long it'd take me to determine whether the terminal velocity of a squirrel or mouse is posted anywhere on the web. A brief Google search showed a lot of guesswork, but I didn't see any numbers. The only thing that seems certain is that it'll be a heck of a lot slower than for humans.
But surely somebody must have measured this at some point, right?
(Now I'm wondering ... if a hirsute human does three jumps, one clothed, one naked, and one naked and shaved, will the speed difference between the three trials e noticeable? Oh, wait ... can't do properly-naked, because he needs to be wearing a parachute, and the 'chute pack + harness will change the drag coefficient. I guess it'll have to be a wind-tunnel test instead of skydiving.)
So I suspect that the field mouse assertion is correct, but I too would like to see the numbers.
From the video linked in the comments below, it looks like not only did the squirrel land safely (since there are REPEATED shots), but it *looks* (and I could be wrong) like the person who set this up also set up a net to catch the squirrel; I think I'm seeing it in the last shot.
Neither. You had what looks like a proper a href link.... and then nothing *inside* the Anchor tag to actually provide the thing for people to click on.
A friend pointed me to this entry...as someone who has watched most of his expen$ive birdseed go down those greedy grey gullets, I say BRAVO! Join your cousins the flying squirrels!
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 05:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 05:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 06:07 pm (UTC)Mind you, I'm wondering if the squirrel landed safely and wonder what it must have been thinking.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 06:34 pm (UTC)The think is that I can't see this hurting a squirrel. Those bastards launch themselves between trees and occasionally MISS. I'm not actually hot to give something like this a try but I have a mental image of the squirrel landing, running up the nearest tree, looking around for a minute, then going off to find the nut he was catapulted with.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 06:52 pm (UTC)then again, depending on how tight that catapult was wound, it may have been moving faster than it should have. But I think it's at least possible to set up a trap like that which wouldn't harm the animal.
Either way, it's funny.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 07:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 09:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-04 07:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-04 03:38 am (UTC)Even with that caveat, source or show your work?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-04 04:56 am (UTC)But surely somebody must have measured this at some point, right?
(Now I'm wondering ... if a hirsute human does three jumps, one clothed, one naked, and one naked and shaved, will the speed difference between the three trials e noticeable? Oh, wait ... can't do properly-naked, because he needs to be wearing a parachute, and the 'chute pack + harness will change the drag coefficient. I guess it'll have to be a wind-tunnel test instead of skydiving.)
So I suspect that the field mouse assertion is correct, but I too would like to see the numbers.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-04 01:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 05:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 05:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 07:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 07:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 08:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 08:25 pm (UTC)-- Steve finds the video hypnotic. Bordering on cruel, yes, but strangely hypnotic even so.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 08:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 09:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 09:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-03 09:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-01 04:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-04 06:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-04 06:14 am (UTC)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Ya6z-NlDo&feature=related
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-04 12:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-04 12:47 pm (UTC)Whirrrrr!!!
Date: 2009-11-07 06:03 pm (UTC)