Right at 1:20 this afternoon, there was a sudden BOOM!-BOOM! outside which rocked the whole house – almost felt like an earthquake, except the ground didn’t shake.
Freaked me out at first, until I checked the news and saw, yep, it’s the Space Shuttle landing. Always triggers a double sonic boom as it glides into Edwards AFB. 
Did anyone else feel it?
Wow, I had no idea it traveled that far. I live near Edwards, so I always hear it. Shook my windows pretty good, as usual. 
ETA: sonic booms are always “double”. The sound barrier is broken at the front of the craft, and at the rear.
I think it was the Space Shuttle landing.
Either that or my neighbors house just blew up. That really happened a few years ago in Redondo Beach, when there was a gas leak in a house that was getting termite tented. Something ignited and the whole house blew up. I thought it was the space shuttle landing.
Does anyone know how far the sonic boom from the space shuttle can be felt/heard?
Yup I heard it and started a threadabout it too.
When I’m at home in Boca Raton, like I am today, I cannot hear it. When I’m at work in north West Palm Beach / Riviera Beach, I can hear it quite clearly.
I’m still kicking myself for not taking compressible fluids class, but I thought it was because of the nose and the front of the wings both breaking the sound barrier. The way I understand it, the buildup occurs in front of the projectile, not on the rear.
That could be. I’m not an expert, by a long shot.
I live 80 miles away from Edwards and I heard and felt the boom…it wasn’t as powerful as, say a 5.0 earthquake, but felt more like a huge truck was driving right by my house making everything vibrate and the boom itself was moderately loud. So how far from the “epicenter” can the vibrations/sound be felt/heard?
Oh duh. :smack: I noted the exact time—1:20, and went outside to see if a car had hit a nearby house. Seeing nothing, I pulled up the USGS page to check for seismic activity. Seeing nothing, I just went back to reading CNN and saw that the shuttle had just landed. Didn’t click. I’m just getting dense in my old age.
I only heard one “boom.” 
While I, also not really fluent in fluid dynamics, always thought it was the pressure characteristic of the sound wave that caused the double ‘boom’ – one when the compressed air hits the ear, and one when the air pressure reaches normal again after the ‘valley’ of the sonic boom.
Reminds me of when I was a kid in the early '60’s. We lived just a few miles south of Boeing Field when they were testing the SST (or something similar.) For a little while there the BA-BOOM of the plane(s) was almost commonplace before the project was scrapped. I can still hear it in my mind’s ear and wouldn’t mind hearing it again for old time’s sake. Ah, to be at Edwards next year.
That also says:
apparently supporting both other theories about the nature of the double boom.
So, the ‘boom’ is caused by the air ‘clapping’ together behind the aircraft, or at points along it?
Sounds like that’s what the second shock is. The first one extends backwards in a cone shape (think of those things a dog wears when it has surgery, but backwards). You hear the boom when the plane of the cone passes you, so even though the boom is traveling at the speed of sound, the cone is traveling at the speed of the aircraft.
Hahaha…I thought from the title this was going to be about that old cartoon…I think it was street fighter but correct me if I’m wrong…the lead hero would always say ***“Sonic BOOOOOM!” ***when he used his powers. That always cracked me up for some reason.
Dammit, we’re always telling Guile to fight E. Honda somewhere else, but does he listen? Noooooo!
Well, I was basically quoting Guile from Street Fighter II – they made a cartoon of that game? It figures. 
