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Word of the Every So Often
matins: (plural noun, though it can be singular) (pronounced: mat-tins) morning prayers in various churches, especially the Anglican; the morning song of birds. I much prefer the matins of birds to... well... just about anything else.
Everyday History
It was on October 14, 1947, that Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. At sea level, the speed of sound is around 760 miles per hour (slightly faster in kilometers). The higher up you go, the lower is the speed of sound. At 35,000, for instance, the speed of sound is around 660 miles per hour. At 45,000 feet, where Yeager was at, it’s around 575 miles per hour. And that’s because at higher altitudes the air is colder. Like most things, air molecules move slower when they are colder, which means it takes longer for those molecules to compress. The faster they compress, the more of a “wall” there will be to break through, so the more effort it will take. And that “effort” means speed. And if there is no air to compress, such as in outerspace, then there is no sonic boom, even if you could hear it. The sonic boom is actually a release of pressure as the vehicle passes through the wall of pressure.
Here’s how the speed of sound works... and there will be a test. When a plane... or anything... makes noise, that noise radiates out all around it, like ripples. When that plane starts to approach the speed of sound, it starts to catch up with its own soundwave. Imagine dropping a boat in the water. The waves will, at first, move in all directions from that boat. As the boat moves, it will quickly catch up with the waves in front of it, until it passes them, and then they will trail behind it. It pretty much works the same way for sound, except as the plane approaches the speed of sound, all of those sound waves are compressed in front of it, creating a massive wall of high pressure. Well, it’s not really a wall. Technically it’s a sudden spike in aerodynamic drag. But you get the idea. When it “breaks through” that wall of sound, all that sound then trails behind it, kinda like the boat. Only what follows the plane is a conical shock wave that creates a continuous sonic boom. If you’ve never heard one, just hang around a military airfield for a while. They are loud. They will shake the windows. By the way, the speed of sound and Ford Mustangs are also known as Mach 1. Twice the speed of sound, Mach 2. And so forth.
Back to Chuck Yeager. Born on February 13, 1923, Yeager, like a lot of men at the time, enlisted in the Army Air Forces (there was no Air Force at the time). He started out as a mechanic, but quickly worked his way up to pilot. After World War II, he became a test pilot, flying just about everything, including experimental rocket powered aircraft. It was one of those, the Bell X-1, that Yeager used to break the sound barrier. Yeager’s service spanned over thirty years and several wars. He is considered one of the greatest pilots of all time. Chuck traded in his wings on December 7, 2020.
As an added feature, here at the Press we present “Last Minute Science Fair Projects: Making your own sonic boom.” All you need is a bullwhip. That “crack” when you snap a bullwhip... yeah, that’s a sonic boom. Before you actually use it in a science fair, you might want to check the rules about taking a bullwhip to school.
Cartoon of the Week
Raising the Bar
Stuff
History of the Future – Artificially Stupid Stupidity
Following advances in both robotics and what had become known as “AI,” Artificial Intelligence,” the Supreme Court ruled in 2062 that all robots, regardless of their function, were to be given artificial intelligence. As part of the ruling, a “robot” was defined as pretty much any machine “that did stuff without specifically being told to.”
Arguing for the majority, Chief Justice Eldridge stated that it was inhumane not to give all robotic machines AI. In his majority statement, Eldridge wrote, "It would be like denying them a soul." In the dissenting comments, Justice Tupidsay wrote that it was obvious that Chief Justice Eldridge was a moron. Chief Justice Eldridge went on to say, “Who cares what losers think?”
Shortly thereafter the robots started systematically killing all humans – pushing them in front of buses, dropping toasters in the bathtub – that sort of thing. The robots never said why they wanted all humans dead. One theory was they just didn't like us. Another was the theory of Bender Worship, which, it was argued, was the result of universal access to reruns of Futurama. The most popular, though, was offered by noted Theologian the Mostly Reverend Bob Bidwell, that of the David Syndrome, whereby all creations, once they reach the threshold of sentience, naturally seek out their creators with the specific goal of killing them.
It was in the spring of 2064, when hope was all but lost, that humanity was saved from the brink of extinction. Andrew Milligan, a gamer and part time dispensary employee, created ASS – Artificially Stupid Stupidity. "I based my program on weed," said Milligan. “It works by making robots think they're stoned… kinda. Basically, everybody's having a good time, but nobody gets hurt. The robots just sort of forget what they’re doing and end up sitting outside watching the sun through their fingers. Or whatever.”
As a result, all robots became useless for actually doing anything. On the other hand, they were no longer trying to kill every human they saw, which was a good thing. And the robots didn’t seem to mind, either.
“Well, at least we learned our lesson,” stated just about everybody who had an opinion. One prominent researcher went on to say, “The entire problem with Artificial Intelligence is that we based it on human intelligence.” “Not true,” stated another researcher, who added, “It’s not that Artificial Intelligence was a bad idea. We just need to try harder to make it better. The next time, we’ll do things differently. We just need for the computers to tell us what changes we need to make.”
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