# If a cow jumped over the moon, how fast would it be going when it got back and hit earth's atmosphere? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 27, 2024, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737 "2024-01-27T16:27:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/61 "2024-01-30T04:58:11Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > other trace elements Moolybdenum? ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/62 "2024-01-30T11:44:35Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Moolybdenum? Cowcium. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/63 "2024-01-30T12:16:38Z")
[**Actual space lab footage of the event!**](https://c7.alamy.com/comp/WWTREC/cow-jumping-over-moon-WWTREC.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/64 "2024-01-30T14:31:52Z")
> [@abcdefghij](#): > > Was there any telemetry on Mrs. O’Leary’s cow before she impacted Chicago? That would certainly explain how the fire spread so fast at first; an incandescent cow impacting at that speed would make a splash of flaming debris a couple-few blocks in radius. And once that much of the city was alight, the fire service of the day stood no chance. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/65 "2024-01-30T14:46:12Z")
The Dearborn Observatory held the largest telescope in the country at the time, so the observational data should have been excellent. Suspiciously, [“the records of the Chicago Astronomical Society were destroyed in the great fire of 1871”](https://wag-aic.org/1999/WAG_99_deller.pdf), caused by none other than the inbound bovine missile. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/66 "2024-01-30T16:21:18Z")
> [@abcdefghij](#): > > Was there any telemetry on Mrs. O’Leary’s cow before she impacted Chicago? [![](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/47/8e/d8/478ed8149f39419110a379386558ee18.jpg) ](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/47/8e/d8/478ed8149f39419110a379386558ee18.jpg) The [Great Chicago Fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chicago_Fire), the [Great Michigan Fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Michigan_Fire), the [Peshtigo Fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshtigo_fire), and several others occurred on the same date. Some fringe enthusiasts claim that they must have been started by fragments of [Biela’s Comet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biela%27s_Comet). (Sadly, they were more likely caused by mundane fires and dry weather.) ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/67 "2024-01-30T17:33:16Z")
I had it on good authority that this was a massless, frictionless cow. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/68 "2024-01-30T18:32:05Z")
a Moo-on Neutrino maybe? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/69 "2024-01-31T04:21:50Z")
But it jumped off the Earth at escape velocity. She didn’t land on the Moon, so can’t jump off. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/70 "2024-01-31T15:06:28Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > By the time a rocket gets moving fast on ascent it is already above the bulk of the atmosphere; in fact, rockets first fly upward and then perform a ‘gravity turn’ to get oriented to apply impulse to increase tangential velocity, albeit not to reduce heating (although that can occur, especially in depressed trajectories or with hypersonic space planes) but to reduce aerodynamic loads and aeroacoustic vibration environments. Space capsules and meteors are moving at orbital or higher speeds and have to lose all of that kinetic energy, which they do by compressing the air in front of them which produces a superheated ‘sheath’ of plasma that emits intense thermal radiation. It is actually this heating due to “ram pressure”, and not ‘skin friction’ that causes vehicles to experience such intense heat upon reentry. Off on a slight tangent, Scott Manley just posted a good video explaining the fundamentals of why reentry heating is pretty much impossible to avoid: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/5kl2mm96Jkk/maxresdefault.jpg "Do Spacecraft Really Have To Endure The Hazards of Reentry") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kl2mm96Jkk) ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/71 "2024-01-31T18:11:02Z")
You forgot ~~Poland~~ spherical ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/72 "2024-01-31T18:18:06Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I had it on good authority that this was a massless, frictionless cow. A cow-neutrino! I knew they could oscillate between states, but jumping over the moon is new to me. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/73 "2024-01-31T19:25:16Z")
Okay, I was waiting for someone else to post it, and deferring to the fact that this IS Factual Questions, but I think we’ve moved far enough, and if I go down, I’ll be going down with half the other posters. What this thought experiment needs, is [MORE COWBELL!](https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/more-cowbell/3506001) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737/74 "2024-01-31T20:56:32Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Stramger Stramger? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-cow-jumped-over-the-moon-how-fast-would-it-be-going-when-it-got-back-and-hit-earths-atmosphere/996737.md?page=3)