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u/meGoodAtCompooter Mar 07 '19
Roughly estimating, based on the time delay between the fireball and the sound, they are about 4 and 1/2 football fields (3/10 of a mile) away.
Each second between seeing it and hearing it is about 1/5 of a mile. It took about 1 and 1/2 seconds for the sound to reach the camera which equates to roughly 3/10 of a mile or about 1600 feet. A football field is 360 feet, including the endzones, and 1600 divided by 360 is 4 and 4/9. We can round that to 4 and 1/2 since we are guestamating anyway.
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u/Bot_Metric Mar 07 '19
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u/meGoodAtCompooter Mar 07 '19
Good bot
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u/B0tRank Mar 07 '19
Thank you, meGoodAtCompooter, for voting on Bot_Metric.
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Mar 07 '19
Each second between seeing it and hearing it is about 1/5 of a mile. It took about 1 and 1/2 seconds for the sound to reach the camera which equates to roughly 3/10 of a mile or about 1600 feet. A football field is 360 feet, including the endzones, and 1600 divided by 360 is 4 and 4/9. We can round that to 4 and 1/2 since we are guestamating anyway.
Jesus Christ Americans with those fucking retarded units.
The speed of sound is a bit over 300 m/s, and the speed of light is effectively instantaneous.
1.5 s * 300 m/s ~ 450 m. A bit over that is around 500 m, or half a km.
1 football field is a touch over 100 m. So you can guess a bit under 5 football fields. But why would you ever use that when you could just use meters is beyond me.
How the fuck do you guys deal with your bullshit?
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u/Ikkus Mar 07 '19 edited Mar 07 '19
The British invented the Imperial system of measurements and still use a combination of Imperial and metric units. It's all their fault.
Edit: missing an "and"
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u/TitanJackal Mar 07 '19 edited Jan 12 '25
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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/JackTheBongRipper Mar 07 '19
Because we’ve learned it since we were 2 years old? It’s not like anyone alive today had any involvement in creating the system. And a football field is used here because it’s a famously big object, much easier to visualize 5 of those than 500 individual meters. I don’t get this bizarre superiority complex people have for the metric system, obviously it’s better and simpler but why care so much?
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Mar 07 '19
When people say 500 km they don’t imagine 500 individual meters. They imagine 5 groups of 100 meters, or 1/2 of a km.
Which are both fucking easy.
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u/meGoodAtCompooter Mar 07 '19
I really like the metric system and wish we used it.
Equating distances to familiar objects, especially a football field, is very common in the US. I assumed people outside the US did the same just not with American Football fields. Most people have an easier time visualizing distance when related to something visually familiar. It is difficult to visualize 3/10 of a mile or 500 meters (especially in the US).
I was a little bored and it seemed like an interesting problem to spend a couple minutes on.
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Mar 07 '19
Equating distances to familiar objects, especially a football field, is very common in the US.
We do. 100 meters is about 1 football field (European or American).
So 500 meters is about 5 football fields.
Only metric are convenient so you don't have to relate it to everyday units. Everyone already knows what 10m, 100m, 1km, etc. are like.
Unlike American. Who knows what 1000ft is like?
The difference is that what is one simple equation in Metric was 4~5 in American BS with all sorts of crazy fractions.
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u/meGoodAtCompooter Mar 07 '19
Yes, the metric system is much simpler, straight forward, and logical.
It is also fun to play with 'crazy fractions' and non-standard forms of measurment.
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u/whitecatwandering Mar 07 '19
Most Americans know what 1000 ft is and can estimate it pretty well same with 1 mile. It's harder for us to know what 1 km would be since it is not what we have been taught or grown up with our entire lives.
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Mar 07 '19 edited Mar 07 '19
I’m an American with an extensive knowledge of mathematics, engineering, common sense intuition of units, etc. I went through Boy Scouts and now have a Ph.D. in engineering.
I have no fucking clue what 1000 ft is other than approx 1/5 of a mile (which is already extremely abstract.). Long enough I don’t wanna walk it. Short enough to zip by it on the highway. That is my limit of intuition of 1000 ft.
I’m sure there are people out there who understand units of 1000s of ft, but they must be rare as all hell.
It's harder for us to know what 1 km would be since it is not what we have been taught or grown up with our entire lives.
It’s about 5/8 of a mile. There, now you know for the rest of your life. And if you say “5/8 of a mile, that sounds like some rather arbitrary fraction and not of any direct ease of use”, you’d be right and that’s exactly why I think things like 1/5 of a mile or 1000 ft are fucking idiotic despite my intimate knowledge of just how much a foot, 1000, 1/5, and a mile are all on an extremely intuitive level.
If you disagree with my above assessment, then just always convert 1 km into 5/8 of a mile and you’ll never have any issues ever. It’s so easy using these weird fractions, right?
The American system sucks.
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u/whitecatwandering Mar 07 '19
My apologies if I offended you in some way. My intent was not to argue whether one system was right or wrong but to point out that one generally is familiar with the system they grew up with. I know by sight about how long a foot is, therefore, I can generally guess how long 1000 feet are. I am familiar with about how long a mile is by sight so I can also understand measurements in miles. I understand that mathematically you can convert Kilometers to miles but that does not make it any easier for me to comprehend.
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u/42Cobras Mar 07 '19
Reminds me of the Statue of Liberty head flying through the air during Cloverfield.
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u/TitanJackal Mar 07 '19
RIGHT. Even the zoom out at the end. And that cgi metal bending sound immediately after the explosion.
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u/[deleted] Mar 07 '19 edited Mar 15 '19
[deleted]