This would be something to give the observer a clear perception and comparison of different speeds.
The exhibit would be titled "How Fast Is It?" You'd be directed to look at a demarcated, reflective strip about a quarter mile long outside the window. You'd have a panel with a series of buttons of with pictures of various fast things on them.
When you pushed for instance, the drag racer button, it would activate a very bright light or laser pointed at one end of the strip and move it to the other end of the strip at the speed of a drag racer, about 300 mph. This would let you actually perceive this speed as something other than a number.
The next button might be a bullet or a supersonic jet and the light would flash along the strip at 700+ mph.
The order of buttons might be, "Fastest man, fastest animal, land sea and air, fastest car, fastest manned jet and fastest spacecraft. Then perhaps for the fastest speed, the speed of light, you'd have a model Earth and Moon at each end of the quarter mile and move the light dot such that it gives a perception of the speed of light at that distance.-- doctorremulac3, Jun 17 2012 How to jump out of an airplane without a parachute Daredevil_20Sky_20Diving_20Stunt [doctorremulac3, Jun 23 2012] What happens when you drop a heavy and light object at the same time http://www.youtube....watch?v=oBdalzRJR5gFast forward to 1:28 [doctorremulac3, Dec 24 2012] Here's something along the same lines. https://www.youtube...watch?v=LvH2MVI8idwTurn down the sound, horrible soundtrack alert. [doctorremulac3, Feb 16 2023] Excellent.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 17 2012 Nice.+-- blissmiss, Jun 17 2012 Anything faster than about 200mph would simply appear as a streak unless you were standing a ways off.-- Alterother, Jun 18 2012 I have seen a similar thing at Sci-tech. They had a wall with sequential images of the sprinter Kathy Freeman which lit up with the appropriate timing for her real world sprint times. You could run 'against' her if you wished. (She's bloody quick, by the way).-- AusCan531, Jun 18 2012 There was also a recent exhibition of "how many" in Australia, using grains of rice for various stats. "Here are the casualties of World War I... one grain per person." I didn't see it, but apparently it was quite profound.
Bun.-- not_only_but_also, Jun 19 2012 [+] Maybe it could also include hills and valleys to show the speed decrease or increase with the terrain.-- xandram, Jun 19 2012 This would be of immense benefit if it involved cats, and there was a busy 6-lane highway at the end of the "run".-- 8th of 7, Jun 22 2012 (+) The speed of sound through different substances would be cool.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 22 2012 For the deluxe model, you could make the reflective strip pretty tall, say six feet or so. Then you could project actual pictures of the object you're representing. A movie of the chetah running, a marlin swimming or a moving still shot of the the Apollo space capsule for instance.
I think the space capsule would traverse the quarter mile in about 1/25th of a second but you might be able to perceive it as something more than a flash. Even if it was just a flash you'd get the idea and be impressed. With the movie screen version you could also watch a race between different things. Place your bets and push the chetah, the marlin and the peregrine falcon button at the same time.
By the way, the falcon is going horizontal, not in a dive so it's a fair fight. I always thought the "fastest animal" title being given to an animal in a dead dive was kind of cheating. If that's how we're judging it I can go two hundred miles per hour without even breaking a sweat.-- doctorremulac3, Jun 22 2012 You'd be in a sweat [doc]-- AusCan531, Jun 22 2012 LOL, hadn't thought of it that way. Yea, guess I would.-- doctorremulac3, Jun 23 2012 We will pay five dollars cash to watch you do it, [doc].-- 8th of 7, Jun 23 2012 Tell you what, I might do it for $5 (Pay per view) Jump out of an airplane at 10,000 feet with no parachute into a suitably deep body of water. I'll use the idea I posted previously. (See link)
I figured out how to do it, You have an armored suit that will keep you from being torn apart by the force of the water. Ok, but here's the counter- intuitive part. The suit would be weighted, about 600 pounds should do it.
It's the quick deceleration that kills you. A weighted suit would extend your deceleration time enough for you to survive. Instead of going from 200 mph to 0 mph in ten feet (and getting dead in the process) you'd go from 200 to 0 in 60 or 70 feet. Of course you'd be 70 feet under water and you'd have to get that suit off pretty quickly because it's going to the bottom of the bay with you in it or not. But that's part of the fun. There would be a minute or so after I hit the water where it wouldn't be known if I made it or not until I surface victorious, fist pumping in the air. (Or float up face down, or don't come up at all) There would be a short commercial break after I hit (Did me make it? Stay tuned, we'll be back to see right after this message from our sponsor!) and I'd charge about 2 million bucks for that slot.
Like I said in the original post, a very short job with immediate retirement one way or another.
(Note to my life insurance provider: Just kidding. I'm not jumping out of any planes with or without a parachute. The above post was for dubious entertainment value only.)-- doctorremulac3, Jun 23 2012 10,000 feet of altitude gives 30,000 joules per kg of potential energy.
200 mph gives 4,000 joules per kg of kinetic energy.
Clearly, then, you will fall much faster wearing a mass suit than otherwise, and you will hit the water much faster than 200 mph.
Interestingly, according to Horrible Histories, the inventor of the parachute made exactly the same mistake; he forgot to include the mass of the parachute itself in his calculations, and died as a result.-- spidermother, Dec 24 2012 The mass would only be triggered just before hitting the water.-- pocmloc, Dec 24 2012 [+]-- cudgel, Dec 24 2012 Science can certainly be dangerous. (See link)-- doctorremulac3, Dec 24 2012 There's a show my grandson was watching called Blippi where this was done at a children's museum but I can't find the video. They did a simpler version where they just have pictures of various animals that would light up in sequence at the speed they moved at and the kids could race them.
Don't know if they got the idea from here or not but it's a cool exhibit.-- doctorremulac3, Jul 10 2021 Entirely off topic, wadever hoppined to your mile-long idea title, [doc]? Truncated, deleted, still wandering around the ether? Are your knuckles hurting?
Enquiring minds want to know.
[marked-for-deletion, erasage, etc].-- whatrock, Feb 16 2023 Just a silly stunt, better to stick with HB protocols or the place turns into a mess.-- doctorremulac3, Feb 16 2023 random, halfbakery