Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff. Lauren Vogelbaum. Here in early March of
Speaker 1: a four year old Ohio girl named Madison Gardner had
Speaker 1: just turned home with her mother, Brittany, from a shopping trip.
Speaker 1: As her mom was unloading the car, Madison walked up
Speaker 1: the front stoop to enter the house. She grabbed the
Speaker 1: door handle, turned the knob, and then suddenly went for
Speaker 1: a ride. Like the tornado that swept Dorothy and Toto
Speaker 1: to Oz, a gale blew Madison's front door open, turning
Speaker 1: it into a sale with a tiny tot hanging on
Speaker 1: for dear life. Don't worry, Madison wasn't hurt, but the
Speaker 1: episode proves that yes, the wind can blow a person
Speaker 1: off their feet, and it's happened other times too. Also
Speaker 1: in March, organizers of the Cape Town cycle Tour, which
Speaker 1: drew thirty five thousand riders, had to cancel the event
Speaker 1: when winds topped sixty miles per hour. That's kilometers per hour,
Speaker 1: knocking riders off their bike. But how let's start with
Speaker 1: the basics. The wind is always blowing. It can be
Speaker 1: as calm as a warm summer breeze or as destructive
Speaker 1: as a gust, and the strongest hurricane wind blows because
Speaker 1: of pressure differences in the atmosphere, The Sun hits parts
Speaker 1: of the planet at different angles, warming Earth's atmosphere unevenly.
Speaker 1: As a result, some places are warmer than others. Because
Speaker 1: of this uneven temperature, the gases in the atmosphere start
Speaker 1: to shift and dance. Where the air temperature is hotter,
Speaker 1: air molecules expand and move upward, creating pockets of low
Speaker 1: air pressure. On the other hand, cold air temperatures press
Speaker 1: air molecules together, causing them to sink, creating areas of
Speaker 1: high air pressure. When molecules flow from high pressure areas
Speaker 1: to low pressure areas, hang onto your hat, or, as
Speaker 1: Madison abruptly learned, the door handle. The wind can blow,
Speaker 1: sometimes violently. Meteorologists use the Beaufort wind scale to measure
Speaker 1: the force of wind. The scale starts at zero, which
Speaker 1: is a calm breeze, and ends at twelve, which is
Speaker 1: a hurricane force wind of more than sixty four miles
Speaker 1: per hour about a hundred and three kilometers per hour. Still,
Speaker 1: at what point can wind move a person? We spoke
Speaker 1: of Kate Parker, a meteorologist at the Weather Channel, and
Speaker 1: she explained that it depends on a lot of things.
Speaker 1: The formula has to take into consideration a few variables,
Speaker 1: including the velocity of the wind, the effect of gravity,
Speaker 1: which is of course the force of attraction between a
Speaker 1: person and the earth, static friction which is the force
Speaker 1: that keeps a person anchored to the ground, and drag
Speaker 1: from the wind, which is the opposing force of static friction.
Speaker 1: Parker added, you'd also have to take into account the
Speaker 1: density of the air. Is it super moist or heavy,
Speaker 1: is it dry? Is it lighter? A person's mass and
Speaker 1: center of gravity also need to be factored in. For instance,
Speaker 1: little Madison didn't have much mass, so the wind easily
Speaker 1: took her for a ride. The wind would have had
Speaker 1: to blow much harder to lift an adult off their feet,
Speaker 1: especially if they braced themselves, say in a steady crouch.
Speaker 1: Parker said, if you're a larger person or a heavier person,
Speaker 1: it would take a lot more force to knock you
Speaker 1: off your feet. For a person who weighs a hundred
Speaker 1: pounds round forty five kilos, it would take a wind
Speaker 1: speed of forty to forty five miles an hour or
Speaker 1: tropical storm force to move them. Today's episode was written
Speaker 1: by Jesscelin Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. For more
Speaker 1: on this and lots of other curious topics, visit how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio.
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