I’m brand new to the SD, but I have three burning questions that need to be answered. They are:
Whenever you see WW2 movies, the bombs whistle as they fall to the ground. Having never been personally involved in a bombing raid, I’m just wondering if bombs actually do whistle when they fall and if so, why?
Still on the subject of bombs, here is a question I am quite sure NOBODY will be able to answer: how many insects were killed in WW2 as a result of allied bombing?
Whenever I shower after a bike ride in hot weather, I’ve noticed that I give off a rather sharp, acrid smell. At first I thought it was something in my shower, but careful sniffing has revealed that the smell, indeed, comes from my body (specifically my head). What the heck is this smell? Will I one day be overpowered by the fumes and pass out?
Yes, they did whistle but not always. Depended on the bomb, its shape, and so on. I think (not 100% sure) the whistling was often due to the fuse on the bomb. Back then the fuse was essentially a little propeller that was spun by the air rushing by as the bomb fell. The spinning propellor could whistle as it fell.
As to #2 I think you are correct that no one could ever have a clue about this beyond saying a helluva lot of them died. Of course, all that death also made for good breeding grounds for some insects so many were likely born as a result as well.
#3 – no idea. Do you use any hair care products that might be getting washed out by sweat and making the funky smell? What you eat also has some bearing on how sweat smells (as anyone who has eaten a lot of garlic can attest to). Then of course everyone has slightly different body chemistry and maybe your head sweat just stinks more than is usual.
Please see the introductory postings regarding having good subject lines for your posts. You will get much better traffic to your posts if your subject actually gives some clue as to the question you’re asking.
You will also get much better results by presenting unrelated questions in separate posts. A discussion thread on three unrelated topics gets quite unwieldy.
Correct me if I’m wrong (that’s what we’re here for!) but weren’t most of the b&w movies taken in action in WWII silent? As I understand it, the History Channel (et al) add sound effects – droning planes, clanking tanks, bomb-blasts, etc. – that would not have been on the original.
According to this site, insect biomass amounts to about 400 Lbs per Acre. In real units, that’s 45 g/m[sup]2[/sup]. Converting that all into ants, at a mass of ~1 to 5 mg/ant, gives 9,000 to 45,000 ant equivalents per square meter.
If someone happens to know the total tonnage (TNT) of bombs dropped in WWII, it’d be a fairly simple matter to estimate the cratered area. Multiply that by 9 to 45 thousand and you’ve got a ballpark figure for ants killed by bombs. Collisions with bullets or windshields, as well as general swatting casualties would have to be added to that number.
I beleive that they actually put whistlers on some of the bombs, this would help to tramatize (sp?) the people not actually hit by the bomb, and and really scare the crap out the people who the bomb was coming towards (though I don’t remember if the people that the bomb was coming towards could heard it or not, the sound may have dispersed out and around them to much.)