[meteorite-list] MISSOURI, ILLINOIS FIREBALL ALSO SEEN IN KANSAS, MINNESOTA

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2007 15:20:52 -0600
Message-ID: <001401c74a34$ae75d0a0$4a54e146_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi, Steve,

    Speed of sound in air varies with the temperature
of the air, 331.4 meters/second plus 0.6 times Temp
(in C), but for government work, just figure 4 seconds
to the mile. For the 600 miles from above Wisconsin
to the middle of Kansas, 2400 seconds or 40 minutes.
>From the St. Louis area to Kansas, 20 minutes! From
the St. Louis area to Liberty, MO, 15 minutes! Steal
an F-18 from Boeing in St. Louis and you could beat
the sound there.

    Lightspeed propagation delay, from above Wisconsin
to the middle of Kansas? About 2 milliseconds! From the
St. Louis area to Kansas? About 1 millisecond! Completely
imperceptible. Particularly as the delay to SEE it is the same
as the delay to HEAR it! Sight and Sound (via VLF waves)
arrive at the same time -- No Delay.
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast26nov_1.htm

    It really does happen. Makes reports confusing to sort
out. At the terminal point, sight and sound (of termination)
are virtually simultaneous. Further out, there's a delay between
them. Further out still, there's no sound. Still further out,
sound returns as the VLF electrophonic sounds, which
are not produced by the the termination event but by the
"trail" leading to it, are "received."

    The sequence with distance is big noise, less noise,
no noise, then different noise: hissing, snapping, "frying
bacon," rumbling, muttering, crackling, at great distances.
Whether or not that electrophonic sound is heard depends
if and what kind of "receivers" are on the ground around
the "hearer."

    We don't really know the full range of sounds that
can be produced electrophocially. And their simultaneity
makes the sound accepted as "sound" automatically.
Wow! You heard it, too? How far can physical "sound"
waves be detected? The first atom bomb (0.018 MegaTon)
was heard 215 miles away. Tunguska was heard 600 to
800 miles away. (This one wasn't that loud!)

    As the magnitude increases, the "sound" wave and the
"shock" wave are the same thing. Hours after Chicxulub,
on the other side of the planet, sleeping dinosaurs are
rudely awakened by "What the Hell was THAT?"

    But the REALLY big news is that a reporter got
a quote right!


Sterling K. Webb
-------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: MeteorHntr at aol.com
To: sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net ; meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 12:13 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] MISSOURI, ILLINOIS FIREBALL
ALSO SEEN IN KANSAS, MINNESOTA

Hello Sterling and List,

Someone do the math for me, how long would it take for noise
to travel from the Saint Louis area to Liberty Missouri?

If they heard something at the same time they saw something,
I would have to be a bit skeptical from that distance. It might
be a coincidence or some active imaginations.

It is possible that the noise did occur at an appropriate delayed
time after the visual light appearance.

Oh, and by the way, I am not sure if the rest of Murphy's story
is correct, but I want to go on the record as saying that he did
get my quote right.

Steve
-------------------------------------------------------------------
In a message dated 2/6/2007 4:10:56 A.M. Central Standard Time,
sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net writes:

    Here's the Kansas report (below). Interesting that it
contains accounts of rumbling and popping noises when
the object being described is likely 400 miles or more away!
It must be an instance of the much-argued-about indirect
generation of meteor sounds, electrophonically:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast26nov_1.htm

Sterling K. Webb

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/16630902.htm


Aerial sight was a meteor
One mystery remains . where did the falling object end up?
By KEVIN MURPHY
The Kansas City Star

    Many people reported seeing the round, orange
object or hearing a thunderlike sound, some of them
while watching the Super Bowl on TV.
    Several people in the Kearney and Liberty areas
said they heard periodic popping and rumbling
sounds coming from outside.
    "I thought it was a neighbor shooting off fireworks,"
said Richard Specker of Kearney. Others thought
the sound was an explosion.
    The rumbling sounds people heard, he said,
were probably sonic booms.
    Steve Arnold, noted for finding a pallasite
meteorite in Kansas in 2005, said pinpointing
where a meteorite lands is very difficult.
    "These things will burn out 12 miles or so
above the Earth," Arnold said. "If someone
is in Emporia and it looks like it disappears
over the horizon, it could literally be in Illinois.
It's an optical illusion that it looks super near.
It sounds like you guys got a light show a
dozen other states got."
Received on Tue 06 Feb 2007 04:20:52 PM PST