Well, ait depends.

*You* (as standing formly on the ground) beleive that the raindrop
is moving horizontaly. But the *raindrop* itself don't understand that
there is a wind, since it moves along with the wind itself. It thinks that
it's the earth below it that has begun rotating in the opposit direction.

So, it depends how you messure, as always.

And when it commes to the "speed" of the raindrop, the speed trought
the air has, as you said, a terminal velocity, and that speed is always
straigt verticaly, as seen from the surounding air ! Now,  if messured from
the ground, and if there's a "wind" the raindrop will have a horizontal speed
as well as the (constant) vertical speed. The speed-through-air, is constant,
but by doing some vector mathematics, one can calculate the speed-over-ground,
that, with any wind > 0, always will be higher then when it's calm.

So, when driving you car, it's not the raindrop that hits you, it's you
that hits the raindrop...

Anyway, there is a book that describes this better written by someone
called Albert Einstein...

:-)

Jan-Erik Svderholm.

>FWIW - a raindrop has a terminal velocity of a few tens of kilometres per
>second. Actual velocity depends on drop size but in free fall is never vast.
>I imagine that wind blown drops assume a speed approaching that of the wind
>gust they are carried by.
>
>
>
>       RM


Jan-Erik Svderholm
S:t Anna Data
tel : +46 121 42161
mob : +46 70 5241690

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