So let’s say I’m flying in a plane, traveling at 655 miles per hour at an altitude of 20,000 feet. I can easily jog at 6 miles per hour.
The plane is traveling at 655MPH, and I’ve just broken the sound barrier? Is there a boom? If so, is it smaller, maybe fart-like?
Cecil won’t answer my calls.
Probably not, since you’re only moving six miles an hour relative to the air in the plane.
This thread will be locked, and of course you will rightfully and properly punished in the House of Pain, but this did make me laugh more than anything else I’ve read all day.
No. You are travelling faster than sound relative to the Earth, but not relative to the air around you. A sonic boom is caused by an object moving through a medium faster than the speed of sound through it.
<grin>
Boy, this thread reminds me of the time I was travelling at the speed of light in my car/spaceship and I turned on the headlights…
and then there was the time i went back in time and shot my grandfather.
Talk about the universe collapsing!
Is that even true? I thought sound speed was greater than 661 MPH. This calculator suggests Mach 1 = 707 MPH at 20,000 feet.
“Yike. What the heck was that?”
“Just a sonic fart. Mr.B likes to jog in his plane about this time every morning. You’ll get used to it.”
Also remember that you are traveling quite fast as the earth rotates (unless you are on/near one of the poles) and aslo moving at a good speed as the earth moves round the sun, and as the sun travels around the Milky Way.
In those narrow aisles? Without bumping into a coffee cart or a passenger’s elbow? Good luck!
Oh, sorry, I missed that. You’re flying in the plane, not jogging.
Well, watch out for the movie screen, ok?
Which were you asking?
(a) If you’re inside a closed (ish) plane, then the air’s going at the same speed you are, so if you start running… never mind, what everyone else said.
(b) If you’re on a wing or something, then running at 6mph (assuming the plane is at 3mph below, whatever that speed would be) would presumably make a boom. Of course, you probably wouldn’t be able to stand still let alone run forward as there’s a near mach-1 wind in your face.
This would be much the same as if here was a wind of the speed of the plane blowing past you on the ground.