We were in the high bay today, I brought grapes. We (the Anglo-American-Canadian-South African contingent) were tossing grapes and catching them in out mouths. The Saudis were amazed. (Well, the Saudis were bemused.) We discussed the world’s distance record for catching a grape in the mouth.
I am not interested in how far that is. We could not do it at three meters.
How far can a grape be tossed? I figure it can only take so many Gs before it goes all squishy. Further, it lacks much mass to provide the inertia needed to go any great distance.
What would be the limiting factors in toss a grape a great distance? Would these structural limits impact a record attempt?
The structural limits can be mitigated by controlling transient G force during the acceleration phase. A longer acceleration would be able to reach very high velocities, if a grape tossing device was designed well.
I believe a true limit would be reached by deceleration forces, such as friction with, and compression of air. I am not sure what the terminal velocity of a free falling grape is. But any increase over that would increase the pressure on the grape’s skin, and internal cell structure.
Ballistic trajectories in atmosphere would, I think, suffer far more from compromise of targeting confidence than structural failure of the grape itself, in term of operant limits as distance increased.
If we were to use an atal we could apply acceleration over a longer time, so reducing the g-forces, another trick would be to throw it from one of the access platform along the side of the high bay. The grape would cover a greater distance, but with the same acceleration shock.
While the grape would be going fast at the time of launch, it would slow throughout the flight. Ideally, at the top of its arc it would be moving at nada, and then begin to fall, reaching terminal velocity, based on the air resistance of a grape. So it would be moving rather slowly at the time of the catch. You would not want to stand in front of it at launch however.
A high bay, a room about four stories tall. Our flight simulator is in there. Until I stopped them, the guys were repairing a hydraulics problem.
According to Lance Rentzel, former Cowboys receiver and exposer of his cock to young girls, when he played for the Sooners, they had a “grape race” as part of the freshman initiation night. Everyone had to crab-walk backwards from the fifty to the end-zone, with a grape clenched between their ass muscles. The last guy to make it, had to eat everyone else’s grapes.
