Did you know

[den]

At this sound level (1000Hz) ... the air molecules themselves move back and forth a distance of one tenth the size of an oxygen molecule - and the ear drum can respond to such a tiny motion.

Dr Karl says it's true so it must be.

Comments

[arcturax.livejournal.com]

That's pretty cool! That was a neat explanation of sonic booms as well.

I've only heard 2 sonic booms in my life :P

The first one was when I was outside at 4AM looking at Comet Hale-Bopp back in 1999. Some hotshot from Wright Patterson AFB decided to do a low altitude (like 10-20 thousand feet) sonic boom in his F-16. It was like a shotgun blast and scared the living shit out of me. He better hope no one reported him, those are illegal except in an emergency situation and likely got him busted down to private :P

The other time were on 9/11 last year. There multiple sonic booms as two waves of jets from Wright Patterson were heading east at top speed. One group to help defend Washington DC from further attacks. The other either headed to New York or (as rumored) had been ordered to shoot down American Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in central Pennsylvania just as the jets reached the Ohio border and were getting their missiles ready.

The sonic booms caused a lot of panic in both Dayton and eastern Cincinnati. The ones flying over Cinci were the ones on the way to DC. The others flew out near the state capitol, causing some panic there. The booms were called in by panicked residents who thought a plane had crashed near them or that someone was firing heavy guns in their area. On a day like that, you really couldn't blame them for being edgy...