How can I explain the speed of meteors in relatable terms?
Compare meteor speeds of 11 to 72 kilometres per second with cars, trains, aeroplanes, bullets and even the Space Station, using journeys pupils know.
Meteor speeds are so large that numbers alone mean little to pupils. Comparisons help.
Speeds to compare. - A car on a motorway: about 30 metres per second. - A high-speed train: about 80 metres per second. - A passenger jet: about 250 metres per second. - The speed of sound in air: about 340 metres per second. - A rifle bullet: about 1,000 metres per second. - The International Space Station: about 7,700 metres per second. - A meteoroid: 11,000 to 72,000 metres per second.
So even the slowest meteoroid is about 30 times faster than sound and faster than the Space Station.
Journeys pupils know. At 20 kilometres per second, a meteoroid could travel from London to Edinburgh, about 530 kilometres, in under 30 seconds. At 72 kilometres per second, the fastest meteoroids could cross the Atlantic in less than 80 seconds.
Why they vary. Earth travels around the Sun at about 30 kilometres per second. Meteoroids moving in the same direction catch Earth slowly; those coming head-on add their speed to ours. The minimum is set by Earth's gravity, about 11 kilometres per second.
Classroom activity. Pupils calculate how long various objects would take to cover the length of the school field, then compare with a meteoroid. Or mark distances on a map that a meteoroid would cross in one second.
These comparisons help explain why meteoroids glow and why even small ones carry enormous energy.
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