From: henry@spsystems.net (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.space.science
Subject: Re: Falsifiability
Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 20:34:57 GMT

In article <7ns151$hh3$1@the-fly.zip.com.au>,
Peter Smith <psmith@zip.com.au> wrote:
>>  If I claim a mouse dropped off the top of the  Empire State Building
>> will survive this is possible to test.
>
>hmmm i wonder what the terminal velocity of a very small yet highly fluffy
>mouse would be...
>maybe it _could_ survive

It would.  Mice can survive falls of essentially unlimited height.  Their
terminal velocity is low and they have great structural strength, for the
same reason:  lots of area per unit mass.

It was observed a century or two ago, in mines, that the dividing line
between creatures untroubled by long falls and ones that can be hurt by
them lies between mice and rats.
--
The good old days                   |  Henry Spencer   henry@spsystems.net
weren't.                            |      (aka henry@zoo.toronto.edu)