On Fri, Aug 08, 2003 at 04:40:27PM -0500, Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
> Given that the total number of known humanš deaths due to being struck > by a meteorite stands at zero, of what meaning is the figure they > quote?
A number of cars have been struck by small meteorites over the years, according to car insurance companies. This (and the total number of cars) gives an estimate of the rate of meteorite hits per area. Multiply that by the area of all the people, and assume some fatality rate if you are hit, and you get an estimate for the death rate.
Yes. My point is that the weak link in that chain is the "assume" part. Had the meteorite in question (I've seen it as well as talked to some who investigated the incident at the timeš) hit Mrs. Hodges directly instead of losing kinetic energy by bouncing off the radio first, she might well have been killed, particularly had it hit her in the head or other vital spot. As it was, despite the fact that she was covered with two heavy quilts at the time (it can get cold even here in Alabama in November), she had a bruise the size of a dinner plate on her flank where it hit (I have a B&W photograph of her taken in the hospital which shows a black mark above her left hip bone that is at least a foot long by about half that wide). Similarly, had the man in Spain (sorry, I forgot his name) lost control of his car and been killed in the wreck, he could have been counted as a person killed by a meteorite. So with such a small sample size, and dumb luck being a factor in both incidents, istm that it's hard to come up with any hard numbers.
_____
šI was indeed alive at the time, but, although precocious in various ways, I was not yet old enough to travel from Birmingham to Sylacauga and ask questions, or for that matter walk across the room or construct complete sentences . . . ;-)
Just Shows What You Get By Choosing To Live Across The Street From The Comet Theatre Maru
-- Ronn! :)
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