402 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.90 



{^2) The only explanation so far advanced is the possibility of a mirage lifting 



the apparent positions considerably above the true one. 

 SS) S. B. Denglcr, Reno, Pa. 

 S4) Mrs. E. C. Iflft, Franklin, Pa. 



25) Charles McCurdy, Tuscaloosa, Ala., reported the information given. 



26) Harold Miles] East Palestine, Ohio, golf course, 2 miles south of Nesley, 



27) Donald Miles/ Ohio. 



28) Frank Kuba, Oakmont, Pa. 

 Mrs. Frank Kuba, Oakmont, Pa, 



50) Mat Whitlock, Oakmont, Pa. 



51) W. H. Knoch, Saxonburg, Pa. 



32) Charles Walters, near the Stepp Inn, Pennsylvania Route 8, about 7 miles 



south of Butler, Pa. 

 S3) Mr. Honzo, KDKA broadcasting station, Saxonburg, Pa. 



34) Carmen Curcio. 



35) Miss Mary Campbell, Butler, Pa, 



36) Harry C. keyl. North Side Pittsburgh, Pa. 



37) W. H. Knoch, Saxonburg, Pa. 



38) Dale Rudert, Saxonburg, Pa. 



CALCULATIONS OF THE SIZE OF THE METEOR FROM 

 CONSIDERATIONS OF ENERGY 



By James R. Randolph 



Kinetic energy from a meteor is absorbed by the air in two ways : 

 Part of it goes into the production of the sound waves, and part goes 

 into heating the air through which the meteor passes, and at the higher 

 speeds into evaporating the material of which the meteor is composed. 



No attempt has been made to compute the energy transformed into 

 sound. But in the case of the Chicora meteorite it has been possible 

 to compute the nonsonic, or heat, energy mth what is beheved to be a 

 fair degree of accuracy, and from this to compute the weight of that 

 portion of the meteor whose kinetic energy may be assumed as wholly 

 transformed into heat. 



This is possible in this case because there is reason to believe that 

 the velocity of approach of the meteorite was small compared to the 

 velocity given it by the earth's attraction, and because its velocity, 

 which in the upper air may have amounted to about 45,000 feet a 

 second, had been reduced to loss than 1,000 feet a second by the time 

 the remains of the meteor struck the ground. Thus the kinetic energy 

 per pound is laiown. And a way is developed for computing the total 

 nonsonic energy from the size of the smoke cloud. This permits an 

 approximate computation of the weight of the meteor. 



Observers west of the path of the meteorite describe it as leaving a 

 smoke trail that looked at first hke a white pencil mark in the sky, 

 then expanded in about IK seconds to a width that has been computed 

 as approximately 650 feet. After this it expanded and diffused more 



