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 Originally Posted by OngBonga
Let's think of this another way. If I drop a bullet into water, it will hit the water and begin sinking. If I fire the bullet into water, it will surely travel deeper before slowing to its terminal velocity, assuming that's the correct term for a sinking object in water.
You might be interested to know that high velocity bullets penetrate the water LESS DEEPLY than low velocity bullets.
https://youtu.be/yvSTuLIjRm8?t=1m41s
There are more videos on the YouTubes about stuff like this.
Originally Posted by OngBonga
The same is surely true of a meteor. A faster meteor will surely penetrate the atmosphere more than a slower one of equal size and density before slowing to terminal velocity. Am I wrong?
It's complicated to take non-trivial shapes into account, but the shape is a large factor in how it moves through the atmosphere.
I really don't know the answer to this. The thing with bullets is making me 2nd guess my immediate intuition to agree with you. The faster meteor will ablate more, and lose mass faster, than the slower meteor. The changing mass and size may or may not have a significant difference in the impact with the Earth's crust, as far as energy delivered by the 2 meteorites.
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