The Art and Science and Evil of Sound (or, "If You Build It, They Will Hurl.")

Did you hear that?

Da-da's gonna have to release his regular Thursday post today, as he's chaperoning a haunted field trip tomorrow; he went on one yesterday, and of course something paranormal came out of it. Da-da doesn't search for these things, they just happen. More later. In the meantime, here's a true story of acoustic collegiate shananigans that, like parenting, involves guile and strategy and science and negative reinforcement. And yes, extreme sound.

The Art and Science of Sound (or, "If You Build It, They Will Hurl")

The Set-up

Ever have an obnoxious neighbor play crappy music so loud that your toilet rattles and your fillings fall out? You gently complain to them about it, and ask them to please keep it down and they pretty much ignore you and play their crappy music even LOUDER, anyway? If you answered, "YES," then this true story is for you. (If you answered, "NO," then move along. Nothing to see here.)

You Can't Park That There

Fred's wondering what genius came up with this POS and
whether or not his helmet can hold more barf.

Note: This was a notoriously bad, jet-powered VTOL prop design that caused problems for all concerned, pilot and crew alike. Every time they fired this puppy up, everyone concerned -- pilot, landing crew, technicians, scientists -- got violently nauseous, to the point where everyone was adding their lunch to the tarmac. They eventually discovered that each prop tip (there were six, counter-rotating) was spinning so fast that each was instantly going supersonic, multiplied by six, the sextuple sonic shock waves coming off the prop tips making everyone hurl (human bodies apparently don't like that kinda thing). The fact that the pilot was barfing and couldn't see where he was landing (he faced forward, that is... UP) was also more than just a little annoying, if not incredibly dangerous. Yes, this makes the operation of this vehicle actually WORSE than being A Man Called Da-da. Not many jobs like that. But at least the military contractor made a bundle.