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November 9, 2012
Q. Thinking of “the game of Gs,” what circumstances can create truly extraordinary accelerations or decelerations?
A. At Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., in 1958, Eli L. Beeding Jr. took a rocket sled with nine rockets behind it to a speed of about 72.5 mph, recounts Jearl Walker in “The Flying Circus of Physics.” While the speed was rather unremarkable, its time of acceleration was anything but: 72.5 mph in 0.04 second, less than the blink of an eye. “Beeding's acceleration of 83 Gs remains the record in a controlled situation.”
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