Physics students have concocted a bizarre theoretical experiment involving one of Saturn's moons, a wingsuit and the world's fastest man – Usain Bolt.
The University of Leicester undergraduates have calculated that record-breaking Bolt could fly like a bird if it was possible to transport him more than one billion kilometres to Titan and strap him into a skydiving wingsuit.
It shows that the Jamaican sprinter would be one of a handful of humans fast enough to reach the speed needed for take off on the low-gravity moon.
Flapping his arms like a giant bird, the wingsuit would allow Bolt to generate enough lift to carry him into the sky and soar majestically through the air.
The surreal theory has been postulated before, but the Leicester students are the first to apply the science.
The work is part of their final year paper for the Journal of Physics Special Topics – a peer-reviewed student journal run by the university's Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Student Hannah Lerman, 21, said: "I had seen a lot of claims online that humans would be able to fly on Titan, but no one had given the physics behind it.
"I thought it would be interesting to try it with a wingsuit – something that you actually use on Earth.
"It is a really exciting idea that someone such as Usain Bolt could actually fly unaided. It would give a whole new dimension to travelling. I am really interested in the journal side of science, and it was fascinating to see how that was run as part of this module."
Titan is Saturn's largest moon and has a dense, nitrogen-rich atmosphere with a surface pressure almost 50 per cent stronger than Earth's.
As a result, it has long been predicted that humans would be able to lift off into the moon's atmosphere if they were wearing wing-type devices on their arms.
But now, the students have shown that it would even be possible with a regular wingsuit used by skydivers here on Earth – provided you could get a fast enough run- up.
To calculate the speed needed, the group factored in:
The density of air on the surface of Titan.
The acceleration due to gravity.
An average wingsuit wing area (about 1.4 metres squared).
The ratio of the streamline path of the air above the aerofoil to that below the aerofoil.
They found that, for a normal-sized wingsuit, a run-up speed of 11 metres a second would be required.
That would be no problem for Bolt, who has gone faster than 12 metres a second.
Course tutor Dr Mervyn Roy, a lecturer in the University of Leicester's Department of Physics and Astronomy, said: "The aim is for the students to learn about peer review and scientific publishing.
"They are encouraged to be imaginative with their topics and find ways to apply basic physics to the weird, the wonderful and the everyday."
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