Somebody’s about to jump off the building

[Churchill]

that is what supersonic means.

HTH

Oh FFS.

Ok, here we go.

I was referencing the bloke who was going to attempt the highest freefall jump. It was estimated that he would break the sound barrier on his way down.

Doodab obviously understand what I meant.

SY01, stick to wringing your hands like a fairy as your project turns to ratsh!t.

[doodab]

Wrong. Speed of sound decreases with height due to lowering temperature, until you hit a temperature inversion higher up.

I know this as I have travelled through the sound barrier.

Ah I see. Is this because lower temperature = higher density or is it more complex than that?

[suityou01]

Oh FFS.

Ok, here we go.

I was referencing the bloke who was going to attempt the highest freefall jump. It was estimated that he would break the sound barrier on his way down.

Doodab obviously understand what I meant.

SY01, stick to wringing your hands like a fairy as your project turns to ratsh!t.

chillax dude

[Churchill]

Wrong. Speed of sound decreases with height due to lowering temperature, until you hit a temperature inversion higher up.

I know this as I have travelled through the sound barrier.

Did you spill your pasta?

[Gibbon]

Ah I see. Is this because lower temperature = higher density or is it more complex than that?

More complex. Varying density doesn't really come into play in a gas.

"An analysis based on conservation of mass and momentum shows that the speed of sound a is equal to the square root of the ratio of specific heats g times the gas constant R times the temperature T.

a = sqrt [g * R * T] "

[Gibbon]

Did you spill your pasta?

No I was far too south for pasta. Try penguin burger.

[Sysman]

My grandad worked on the railways for years, he was deputy station master at Paddington in the late 60's.

One of his jobs, along with kicking in the doors of toilet cubicles and dragging out the junkies who'd od'd in there, was helping recover the bodies after a "one under". By the time the trains had finished with them they came out in chunks, not entirely dissimilar to the large vacuum packed joints you get in a supermarket.

I recall a story told by an ex-Met copper from the days of steam trains. The fire brigade was busy putting out a fire on a railway track caused by red hot coals being spat out of a train funnel.

Two trains came past at full speed in opposite directions with the firemen standing in the gap in between the tracks.

Same result apparently.

[Sysman]

A friend of mine’s a journalist for NOS Radio 2; he says there’s an unwritten rule in the Dutch press to not give press attention to such suicides to avoid provoking others who might be considering the same thing. Decide for yourself on the logic of that. I also know that when people jump in front of a train, which happens quite often, the train company announce it neutrally by saying there was an ‘aanrijding’ or ‘collision’. You could get the impression that trains are constantly crashing in Holland, but in reality they’re saying there was a suicide.

The same happens in Switzerland except they use another euphemism. Many know what they mean though.