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Thread ID: 72414	2006-09-12 05:07:00	Sonic Boom in CHCH	Hitech (9024)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
484133	2006-09-13 06:00:00	Some satellites weigh several tons, Thomas. When the ISS comes down, I hope someone will be able to make quite sure it lands in an ocean. Remember the fuss when heavy bits from a Soviet space object (including a nuclear reactor) landed in Australia?. There are still some very powerful rockets capable of launching heavy objects. The amount of noise objects produce as they enter would depend on the speed. Meteors are travelling very fast when they hit our atmosphere, expecially ones which have come from outside our galaxy.	Graham L (2)
484134	2006-09-13 22:50:00	Some satellites weigh several tons, Thomas. Agreed - But they are huge devices. More or less empty spaces - the bigger they are the less the inherent strength. A ping pong ball really as compared to a billiard ball. There are some relatively solid items in space stations etc, but consider the large size & weight of the space shuttle which broke up when it lost control - not much remained of it. I thought that the meteorite must be at least the size of the meteorite in the Canterbury Museum (if you haven't seen it then make a trip to Christchurch and view it). And if I admit it - I also assumed that it was in fact considerably above this size - more the size of a lorry or bus. It looks as though I was wrong! There I've admitted it - I was wrong! Tom	Thomas01 (317)
484135	2006-09-13 23:10:00	Sonic booms are caused by objects exceeding the speed of sound. Weight hasn't got a lot to do with it. Weight has everything to do with it. Today in NZ lots of guns will be fired which have a muzzle velocity above the speed of sound. Nobody more than a fairly short distance away will notice. In 1968 I was fortunate (or unfortunate!!) enough to be part of the design team employed on the American supersonic passenger plane. Those of us who had worked on the Concorde remembered the problems with that aircraft - but they were nothing compared to the problems Boeings were running into. The aircraft was much bigger and considerably heavier than the Concorde and the extra sonic boom was a huge worry - in order to improve the lift/drag ratio we were also trying to get the beast to ride on its own shock wave. Wow - the mind boggles! It was probably a good thing that the money ran out and the beast was cancelled. Tom	Thomas01 (317)
484136	2006-09-13 23:49:00	I also assumed that it was in fact considerably above this size - more the size of a lorry or bus. It looks as though I was wrong! There I've admitted it - I was wrong! TomI'm glad you were wrong! I didn't hear it. I've worked out that at the time it hit i was on central Christchurch building site and the mild bang disappeared into the normal noise i was ignoring in my then environment. Had it have been truck size, i assume there would have been a nice crater to show it's location, and the bang would have stood out even on a building site. For reference, both Graham and myself are Christchurch residents. And yes the rock in the museum is extremely cool :D	personthingy (1670)
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