Red Side has produced a fascinating video comparison of the fastest man-made objects (so far). It's quite entertaining.
I was amused by its reference to an ultra-high-speed manhole cover, launched during Operation Plumbbob in 1957. It wasn't actually a manhole cover, but a 2,000 pound steel cover plate over a 500 foot borehole used for a nuclear test explosion. It's presumed to have been vaporized during its passage through the Earth's atmosphere after the big bang.
Peter
That's a good one, and yes, the manhole cover is hilarious!
ReplyDeleteThat's a great post, but the manhole cover puts it over the top.
ReplyDeleteI like to think that, if extraterrestrials exist, somewhere two of them are peering around the edges of a perfectly circular hole through their space station, wondering what happened.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how many were created in the United States.
ReplyDeleteFrom memory the manhole cover can be see in a photo from the blast. Would be epic to be able to produce the photo (which now I can't remember if I saw it or not), but not today.
ReplyDeleteSee the comments of the scientist who supervised the "manhole cover" test:
ReplyDeletehttps://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Brownlee.html
I think he had a blast!
It was an okay video, I thought, but I didn't enjoy the reverse playback toward the end. That second helicopter they mentioned looks groovy.
ReplyDelete