Thread: Sonic Boom!

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

If so, though, there were very light, compared to the shuttle. When the shuttle comes back, DAMN that shits loud. I mean it shakes your whole house, and there are always two blasts. It's crazy that something so small, so high up, can make such an enormous sound.

The energy dissipates according to the Inverse Square rule. I wonder what the actual distance is for you? (I seem to remember you having filmed a night shuttle launch through your window last year, so it can't be all THAT far.)

Our getaway in the northern lower peninsula about 30 miles from a huge National Guard base, which is surrounded by a bombing range. We often hear the bombs and see the jets, but they do not fly supersonic so there are no sonic booms. I'd love to hear one in the valley! Thunder is an amazing experience there. Imagine something with the impact of a sonic boom.

Originally Posted by pj

The energy dissipates according to the Inverse Square rule. I wonder what the actual distance is for you? (I seem to remember you having filmed a night shuttle launch through your window last year, so it can't be all THAT far.)

Our getaway in the northern lower peninsula about 30 miles from a huge National Guard base, which is surrounded by a bombing range. We often hear the bombs and see the jets, but they do not fly supersonic so there are no sonic booms. I'd love to hear one in the valley! Thunder is an amazing experience there. Imagine something with the impact of a sonic boom.

Do you know if the sonic boom occurs when the shuttle first enters the atmosphere, or when it gets within a certain range of whomever is listening? I checked a map and I'm about 30 miles, straight across, from the cape, but I don't know how far downrange, and at what altitude, the boom actually occurs. I'd like to find out, though. I should know these things, considering I've lived here for like the past 15 years. Heh.

Did you know that, when the shuttle goes up, it travels in excess of 27,000mph. Cheezus. That's fast.

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

Do you know if the sonic boom occurs when the shuttle first enters the atmosphere, or when it gets within a certain range of whomever is listening? I checked a map and I'm about 30 miles, straight across, from the cape, but I don't know how far downrange, and at what altitude, the boom actually occurs. I'd like to find out, though. I should know these things, considering I've lived here for like the past 15 years. Heh.

A sonic boom doesn't really "occur," per se. Not like a bomb going off. Everybody hears the boom(s) when the shock wave(s) reach their ears. The shock wave travels with the shuttle so long as it is supersonic. I put the (s) in there because the double thing you heard is two separate events, one occurring at the nose and the other at the tail.