Description

Does anyone have the skills to track an object across a video like was done in the Gimbal video here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_eXsOovx4w)

I'm asking because it'd be awesome to see this three-second clip tracked like that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YYkjYAxT44&t=115s

From about 1:55 to 1:58 in that clip, there's a UFO that flies to the right and suddenly goes backwards the way it came. If someone knows how to do tracking, please do so on that three second clip.

I tried to do the same with simple copy/paste into Paint, and this is what it looks like:

https://preview.redd.it/7b4jp1tror671.png?width=1327&format=png&auto=…

That's its motion between 1:55 and 1:56 of that clip (so one second of motion).

I tried to use that to estimate the g-forces on that object, since this looks very compelling. It looks like it's far enough away that it doesn't look like an object closer than the nearby hills. It looks like it's somewhere part-way between the nearby hills close to the viewer and the mountains/hills in the background (maybe closer to the nearby hills than the mountain). It also looks like it's moving roughly perpendicular to the viewer, since the length of the object doesn't seem to change over that second (so it's not moving directly towards or away from the viewer).

Based on these assumptions, I'll guess it's about 20 feet in length (just looking at the cars passing on the highway outside my window and the hills in the background). I took screen shots at 1:55 and 1:56 and copy/pasted the images over to paint to measure that the object went about 11 times its length in 1 second. That means it's going 220 feet per second, or 150 mph: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=220+feet+per+second+to+mph

Let's just underestimate its acceleration (or deceleration in this case) by saying it went from 150 mph to 0 mph in half a second (the craft not only did that, but it seemed to go backwards at around 1:56 into the video, and all in less than a fraction of a second). So this would be an underestimate on the g-force on such an object: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=acceleration+of+150+mph+to+0+mp…

Divide that by 9.8 m/s\^2: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=134.1%2F9.8

That means the acceleration (or deceleration) of this object was at least 13.6 g's. Fighter pilots would black out at that acceleration (their brains would effectively weigh 40+ pounds at that acceleration), since apparently 9 g's is the most a trained pilot can take (according to Lue Elizondo and Google). Also, as far as I know, we had no drones back in 1950 that can perform a maneuver at 13+ g's.

So this is pretty compelling. Assuming the object is 20 feet, then an underestimate for its acceleration is 13.6 g's. You can say, "Well, maybe it's not 20 feet." If you re-do the calculation with 'x' feet, then it's still going around 11 times its length per second (measuring the distance between the snapshot at 1:55 and the snapshot at 1:56 in Paint). Then it's speed in mph is (15*x)/2 mph: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%2811*x%29+feet+per+second+to+m…

There are 1609 meters per mile and 3600 seconds per hour, so re-doing the calculation, then the acceleration is around (0.68*x) g's: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%2815+x%2F2%29*%281%2F3600%29*%…

So a 25-foot long object mean that this sustained 17 g's: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%2815+25%2F2%29*%281%2F3600%29*…

A 10-foot long object would mean it experienced at least 6.8 g's: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%2815+10%2F2%29*%281%2F3600%29*…

I suppose it's possible we had 10-foot long drones that withstood 7+ g's back then, but this was filmed around 1950, so it I don't think that's too plausible. Drones back then were either modified planes or something with some visible tail/wing. It may be hard to tell due to film quality, but this object doesn't look like it has any tail on it.

Anyways, if anyone can make a short clip tracking this object and post it here, that'd be awesome :-)