Being on TV

I haven't written on my blog in a long time -- too much stress from work and improvements to the tenement. I miss my blog :( No excuses anymore, I had to get on here today since Phil Plait's new show aired last night. I don't have a TV or cable so I couldn't watch it. I did swap email with Phil over the weekend, though. I wanted to let him know I sold a one-time use license of my video of the sonic boom obliterating a sundog to a Japanese TV show, only not the same show that asked for it the first time. At the time he advised me to stay far away from anything called Mystic Detectives. That was my gut reaction too, so it was good to have agreement on it. I held out on The World's Most Amazing Videos until they agreed to pay me almost 3 times their original offer. If anybody has access to FujiTV on September 25th watch the show and tell me if they bother to explain Snell's Law. They made me nervous the way they tried to talk me into it. I emailed them this....

I am concerned it will not be presented with the proper explanation of the physics of cirrus clouds, sun dogs, refraction and supersonic pressure waves. I have been approached by other organizations who wanted to call it mystical. As a scientist I cannot allow this.

And their reply:

Please kindly consider this matter. As you said, it is mystical and very rare phenomenon. Most of people have never seen this beautiful miracle before. We'd like to introduce it to the audience in Japan. The show is targeting the audience from children to older people. They'll be greatly moved and impressed by your video.

What?! NO! NOT mystical! Maybe there is something lost in translation? What do they think mystical means? What about MIRACLE?! I am uncomfortable with these words. I suppose ultimately it is best for people to see it and judge for themselves. Considering I got a YouTube comment from someone who was surprised the US even launches rockets anymore it's good to get that fact in front of a wide audience when possible. John Callender over at lies.com told me not to worry, just take the money.

Anyway, back to Phil's show, Bad Universe. He seemed a little nervous about how it will be received. His email indicated he was in self-deprecating mode, preparing himself for the worst -- a basic coping mechanism I know very well. Then I saw a Twitter update today crowing about Bad Universe being in the top 100 Google searches today. So of course I had to Google it a few times to help him out. I found a lot of good reviews and a few previews that look like fun!



Now not to diminish Phil at all, I have to mention that after a few trailers for his show, the search for "Bad Universe" produces a Strongbad email called Alternate Universe. Now that's pretty awesome, Phil. Good company :) Skip ahead to 1:30 and see Strong Badman, with his well drawn abs. Phil Plait has a cartoon version of himself for his show title but he only got a chiseled chin and pinched in waist and no well-drawn abs. Maybe next time, Phil!



I did see another trailer for the show that used a giant-shooting-light-out-the-eyeballs sequence that looked very like the intro to Earth Girls Are Easy, another influence I admire.

So good luck with your show, Bad Astronomer! And thanks again for helping my video go viral so the Japanese would decide they needed it! I need the money. As Granddaddy used to say, "Put it against your bills as far as it will go."

More analysis of the visible sonic boom

Geoffrey Forden wrote an article with a missile-centric explanation of the waves in my video.  Since he used my image I'm going to go ahead and use his too. He draws this nice diagram to show how the shock waves from the rocket traveled through the cirrus cloud.

Then he picks out the individual waves in the cloud and correlates them to points on the vehicle that could make shock waves at the cusp of supersonic flight. I'm not sure it's so cut and dry though. I think the ordinary acoustic waves following the shock waves do something too.

The comments after this article are very informative. I like this one about the cloud.

The “cloud layer” is actually a thermal layer or boundary with warm, moist air below, cold air above, and a layer of ice crystals at the boundary. Such thermal barriers create optical refraction effects similar to those between glass and air, and critical angles beyond which they begin to reflect instead of refract. It’s the latter effect that’s responsible for the visible waves.

It happened to be a very calm day with no wind or turbulence, which made the thermal layer abnormally flat and abrupt — pertect for the observed effect.

— Paul Lutus · Feb 19, 03:36 PM ·

This satisfies me a lot more than the digital light projector theory. Ordinary Snell's Law accounts for the visible ripples and not the requirement that the ice crystals tip in unison and not just go tumbling like crazy. Cause it seems to me they'd just go tumbling like crazy. I'm very glad to know these optical refraction effects are a thing.


(Thanks to Phil Plait for sending me this link.)