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This past weekend I was watching a show on TLC, (The Learningsegments a
Channel) called "The World's Biggest Explosions." In one of the
hiker takes a video of a rocket fuel storage depot exploding. The hikeris
looking down at the depot from a mountain top. I'm guessing he wasrecording
the event from a mile away. Here is the part I'm trying to make senseof
-and I'm sure someone out there will have an answer. ASSUMING TLC DIDNOT
DOCTOR THE VIDEO, when the fuel depot explodes (a mile away) you canhear a
BOOM ALMOST at the instant the flash is seen. The BOOM sounds like itrumbling. At
contains no high frequencies. The BOOM is following by a low volume
the moment of the flash you also see the shock sweep across a valleysound of
below the hiker doing the filming. After about 5 seconds you hear the
an incoming rocket (like in a cartoon) followed by the tremendously
louder boom of the shock wave as it hits the camera's location.
QUESTIONS:
To accomplish this, is the initial BOOM traveling through the ground
to the camera that fast to almost be instantaneous from a mile away?
Is the rumbling between the flash of the explosion and the shock
wave caused by sound being carried through the ground to the camera?
Does the shock wave caused by the explosion travel through the air
at the speed of sound for air ?
==========================================================
Tony Wayne Those that can, do.
wayne@pen.k12.va.us Those that understand, teach.
This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC,
NAU or the AAPT.