Sonic Booms facts

While investigating facts about Sonic Boomsprays and Sonic Booms Today, I found out little known, but curios details like:

The distinctive nose of the Shinkansen 500 bullet train prevents sonic booms whenever it exits a tunnel and was discovered when scientists studied the shape of a kingfisher's beak to learn how it hit the water at high speed

how sonic booms work?

During the opening ceremony of Ottawa international Airport’s new terminal in 1959 a USAF F-104 Starfighter did a supersonic flypast. The resulting sonic boom shattered nearly all the glass in the airport and caused significant structural damage, delaying the opening for another year.

What causes sonic booms?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what happened to sonic booms. Here are 50 of the best facts about Sonic Booms Near Me and Sonic Booms Illegal I managed to collect.

what's sonic booms?

In 2003, an F-16 patroling in Iraq was called in to assist British special force troops ambushed by Iraqis. Because it was night-time, the pilot can't drop his bombs without hitting the British. So he dived and pulled his jet up, forming a sonic boom that hit the Iraqis, causing them to flee.
Sometime in 1981, President Ronald Reagan ordered an SR-71 to spy on a secret North Korean conference, not because there was anything to learn, but because the repeated sonic booms would interrupt the conference and there wasn't a weapon on earth which could shoot the craft down.
Soviets were so helpless against the SR71-"Blackbird" that Reagan sent some to secret Soviet meetings, creating sonic booms and drawing figure eights over, letting them know they were being watched and can't do a thing about it.
The crunch sound of food is made by mini sonic booms; breaking at 300 meters per second or faster.
A whip makes its cracking noise because the whip's tip breaks the sound barrier and what you hear is actually a small sonic boom.
In 2014 a man maced a Gamestop employee because Sonic the Hedgehog's arms were blue rather than flesh coloured in Sonic Boom
Eiji Nakatsu, a Japanese engineer, redesigned a high-speed bullet train to be shaped like the bill of the kingfisher bird---thereby reducing its sonic boom effect, and allowing the train to run at higher speeds and still adhere to the standard noise level of 70 dBa.
The XF-84H "Thunderscreech", an experimental propeller aircraft whose rotors moved at supersonic speeds and created continuous sonic booms visible from hundreds of yards away which were powerful enough to cause severe nausea, headaches, and even knock people to the ground.
The bang you hear when a balloon pops is a sonic boom created by the rips in the rubber, which travel faster than the speed of sound.
In 1964 the FAA, wanting to find out whether the population of a city would tolerate regular sonic booms, got the air force to make multiple daily supersonic flights over Oklahoma City for six months

sonic booms facts — What do sonic booms sound like?

Why sonic booms are dangerous?

You can easily fact check why don't we hear sonic booms anymore by examining the linked well-known sources.

The "electrolaser", a real world directed-energy weapon which fires laser-guided lightning bolts. When fired, a laser forms a channel of supercharged plasma out of the surrounding air, creating a path for the lightning and also causing a sonic boom.

Three SR-71's flew over the Hanoi Hilton during the Viet Nam war - their sonic booms "the sound of thunder" to alert Vice Admiral Stockdale that if he could escape, Navy SEALs were waiting to rescue him - source

Rapidly freezing underground water rips the ground apart explosively, causing sounds that are similar to sonic booms! Its called a Cryoseismic Boom - source

In 2007, wreckage from a Russian spy satellite re-entered Earth's atmosphere, coming within 8 km of an in-flight passenger jet. The pilot reported hearing the sonic boom as it passed.

The Whip was the first human-made object to break the sound barrier. The "crack" of the whip, is actually a tiny sonic boom - source

When were sonic booms outlawed?

If a meteor produces a sound called a sonic boom, it is typically heard seconds after the meteor becomes visible.

How sonic booms are created?

A helicopter's classic beating sound is actually a series of mini sonic booms created by the tips of the rotor blades travelling at supersonic speeds.

Certain charged particles can be made to move faster than the speed of light in water and this gives off a cool blue light - the light equivalent of the sonic boom effect.

The sound of thunder is caused by lightning (which is hotter than the surface of the sun) temporarily superheating the air so that the air moves so fast it breaks the sound barrier. Thunder is a "sonic boom".

A Chinese method of popcorn-making involves heating kernels in a large cast-iron canister that is then sealed with a heavy lid and turned over a fire rotisserie-style. When the canister is removed from the fire, the seal is released and, with a huge sonic boom, all the kernels explode at once.

The sound made by "crunchy" food is actually caused by tiny sonic booms

When were sonic booms banned?

Technology now exists to make sonic booms 70% quieter, but supersonic jets are still banned over land by the FAA

The 'crunch' sound made by potato chips and other foodstuffs is actually a tiny sonic boom

A sonic boom isn't a one-time sound, but is instead a continuous sound emanating in a cone shape behind a supersonic object. You hear the "crack" when the cone reaches you.

The XF-84H "Thunderscreech, a turboprop plane with a supersonic propeller, was able to continuously create sonic booms which were powerful enough to cause nausea, headaches, knock people to the ground, and crack

How sonic booms form?

An erupting volcano can create a shock wave and a sonic boom. From a boat, on 29 August 2014, Phil McNamara was watching Papua New Guinea's Mount Tavurvur volcano when it suddenly erupted. In the plume a white cloud briefly appeared. The shock wave rippled above. And Phil caught it all on video.

The cracking sound a whip makes is actually a small sonic boom that occurs when the end of the whip breaks the sound barrier

The 1964 Oklahoma City sonic boom tests that measured the sociological impact of supersonic flight. 1,253 sonic booms were performed by the federal government over a period of six months. 73% of the population surveyed said they could live indefinitely with 8 booms per day; 3% sued.

The maximum acceptable loudness of a sonic boom is not specifically defined under the current FAA regulation" so "NASA and its aviation partners have been researching ways to identify a loudness level that is acceptable to both the FAA and the public, and to reduce" supersonic aircraft noise.

Skyquakes are unexplained reports of a phenomenon that sounds like a cannon or a sonic boom coming from the sky.

A woman claimed that Concorde's sonic booms made her pregnant because it interrupted her rhythm method of contraception.

The cracking sound a bullwhip makes when properly wielded is, in fact, a small sonic boom. The end of the whip, known as the "cracker", moves faster than the speed of sound, thus creating a sonic boom. The whip is probably the first human invention to break the sound barrier.

In 1964 Oklahoma City was subjected to 6 months of daily sonic boom testing from jets by the FAA and US Air Force. Tests ended early when more than 15,000 residents filed complaints and windows on the tallest buildings were broken

In 1964 the FAA set off 1,253 sonic booms over Oklahoma City in what was known as "Operation Bongo II."

A sonic boom is created by any object that travels through the air faster than the speed of sound. Scientists also believe he bullwhip was the first object to break the speed of sound.

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