
Where does the wind come from? What is a sonic boom? Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice explain things you thought you knew about sonic booms, daily temperatures, and how wind works.
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Neil deGrasse Tyson
Hello, Stark Talkians. Neil here. Coming up, we have another things you thought you knew episode. This time we're talking about sonic booms. Day and night, temperatures and wind. Check it out. Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. I've come to shed some more light on that which is mysterious in this world.
Chuck Nice
Yes, yes. The stuff you thought you knew, but
Neil deGrasse Tyson
you didn't know that you thought you knew. So I just thought I'd talk about Sonic booms.
Chuck Nice
Okay.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
What do you think of that?
Chuck Nice
I love that.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Nobody doesn't love a sonic boom. Nobody doesn't love Sonic boom.
Chuck Nice
It's one of the best, most popular video games. That's Sonic, that's Sonic, that's Sonic. I tell you, that hedgehog, he is something else.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
So we can learn about Sonic boom. So here you go. Ready? So let's take a airplane. That's a good choice here. And generally airplanes make noise. And so you'll hear the noise and you'll look up and you see the plane coming. Right. And then receding. All right. The fact that you heard the plane and looked up and then you see it approaching means the sound got to you ahead of the plane.
Chuck Nice
Okay?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yes. Right. The plane is not where you are yet. It's down. It's down the road a bit. Right? So you hear it. So the sound is going at the speed of sound and in regular air they call it 700 miles an hour. It's around there.
Chuck Nice
700 miles.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
700 miles an hour.
Chuck Nice
And the plane is still like what, five, four, something?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yeah, frames do 500 miles an hour. So the sound is emanating in front of the plane relative to the plane at 200 miles an hour.
Chuck Nice
Nice.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay. All right, not a problem. No, this is very easy. This is not hard to understand. All right, so let's ask the question. Because by the way, this 700 miles an hour is the speed of sound in air. In typical sort of sea level type air. All right? That's the speed of sound. Now, suppose the plane flew a little faster. Let's let it go 600 miles an hour.
Chuck Nice
Okay?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
All right. Well, the sound going in front of it is now moving in front at only 100 miles an hour faster.
Chuck Nice
Right? Because it's not going to increase because it's the speed of sound.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Sound in air.
Chuck Nice
In air.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay? So what that means is the plane will be a little closer to you before you notice that it's there. Right? Okay. Cause it didn't get. It didn't have a chance to get too far ahead. All right? Cause the plane is like, right, coming up behind it, but it's still moving away from it at 100 miles an hour. That's still pretty fast.
Chuck Nice
Okay, that's fast.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
How about 650 miles an hour? So now, wait a minute. Now it's only. Okay, how about 680 miles an hour? 690. Wait a minute. What happens if you go 700 miles an hour? What happens to the sound you're trying to emit in front of you?
Chuck Nice
Well, it's right with you.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It's right with you. It is with you. So here's the sound. You're trying to push forward, and it's Moving forward at 700 miles an hour, but so are you. So that plane approaches you, you don't even know it's there. You don't even know to turn around and notice it, right? Until it is directly overhead. And then the sound hits you and the light from the plane hits you. And there you are. You say, oh, there's a plane overhead. Well, it's right there above you. Let's keep going. Let's not stop there. Now have it go 750 miles an hour, 800 miles an hour. Oh, by the way, we have words for this. If you go the speed of sound, Mach 1.
Chuck Nice
Nice.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
So now you have punched through this, quote, sound barrier. It's not really a barrier, but we used to think it was one. You punch through and now the sound lags behind.
Chuck Nice
Right?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
All right, so now the faster you go beyond Mach 1, Mach 2 would be how fast?
Chuck Nice
Twice the speed of sound.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Twice the speed of sound. So 1400, 1500. If you go twice as fast, then you are leaving the sound behind you.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
And all the sound that you are making is now snow plowed into this cone that comes out away from your vessel.
Chuck Nice
So it's like your plane made a wake of nothing that is being filled with the sound that you left behind.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Correct. And on the edge of that is all the sound that would have spread out through space ahead of you. And now it's all compressed behind you.
Chuck Nice
Oh.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
And so now that plane flies overhead. You don't know it's there.
Chuck Nice
Right. As a matter of fact, you won't know it's there because it didn't make a sound.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It didn't. Brilliant, Chuck. I'm glad you're a fast study there. Yeah. So there it is, directly overhead. You don't even know to look up because it's well ahead of the sound it's making. So where's the sound it's making? Well, it's way behind. And it's all been snow plowed into this wall of sound moving forward at the speed of sound. So the plane is now downstream from you, and you say, hmm, that's odd. That didn't make a sound.
Chuck Nice
Bam.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
The sonic boom hits you.
Chuck Nice
It's. Oh, it's all the. It's like the. Like the big ball of sound. It's a wall of sound.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It's a wall of sound. It's compressed because the plane left it behind. And all the sound that it would have made, that you would have heard ahead of it is now all behind it in a wall. And it all got plowed into it. So that as it passes over you is a sonic boom.
Chuck Nice
Oh, man.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
And the higher up the plane is, the more delayed that is the sonic boom. You'll come up here, sonic boom. Look up. Where's the plane? It was way down, way downstream. Now, so turns out anything that goes faster than sound will make a sonic boom. Okay, so it turns out a whip. The crack of a whip.
Chuck Nice
Okay.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Is the tip of the whip moving faster than the speed of sound?
Chuck Nice
Oh, sweet.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It's a mini sonic boom we used to do in the locker room. You get like a rat tail with a towel. With a towel. So the sonic boom comes about. So the material. This would be true with a whip, as well. As it flings forward, and you start retracting it before it fully flings forward. And the rapid change of direction there is the thing moving just faster than the speed of Sound and you hear a crack. It's very small. It's a sonic crack, I guess. Not a sonic boom. So that's what a sonic boom is. And I love me some sonic booms. But we had the. No, we didn't. We've never had a commercial supersonic plane in the United States, but Europe did. And you know what that was that French plane. The French plane, yeah, The Concorde. Sst.
Chuck Nice
Concorde, yes.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
And that was a collaboration, I think, with England, and so fly to London and to Paris, to New York. But we didn't have one of those planes.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
We didn't have. So how are we gonna compete with that? Here's what we do. We say we don't like sonic booms over our residences. So if you wanna fly your plane over continental United States, you have to fly subsonic. Well, what's the point of that? Okay, so you didn't have these planes going to la. They all went to New York, basically. And it would've been great if we can all fly supersonically. So the concern was you're having a nice peaceful afternoo, and then sonic booms are just coming across. I think the novelty would probably wear off quickly is my sense of this. Now, a quick little story before we end. There's the Salisbury Cathedral. I think this is a true story. I read about it long ago, but I haven't seen more written about it. So I don't know, maybe it's apocryphal. The Salisbury Cathedral, one of the oldest cathedrals in the world, has one of the oldest clocks in. In the world. And I visited that when I visited Stonehenge when I was a kid, because the Stonehenge is in the Salisbury plains of southwest England. So anyhow, the Royal Air Force is a very underpopulated area. So the Royal Air Force was doing maneuvers there, and there were sonic booms that they were making all the time. Conservatives were worried. Conservators were worried that these sonic booms would jiggle the cathedral and. And damage it. Okay, so we got some acoustic engineers that did some measurements, and sure enough, there's serious sonic boom energy coming into the cathedral. And then someone said, gee, I wonder how much vibration comes from lower C on their organ. On their pipe organ. So they tested the low notes on the pipe organ, and it was more energetic than the sonic booms coming across the thing. So that was the end of that conversation right there. Okay, that could be apocryphal, but it's a fun story. What it means is just in general if you think something is causing something, look for anything else that could swamp that effect. And if you find something that does, then formulate another question.
Chuck Nice
So now, when a sonic boom of a meteor coming into our atmosphere.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
That's why you'll never know. People say, oh, look, here it comes. No, you don't know until it's too late, till it already hits.
Chuck Nice
So is it the boom that is breaking windows, or is it the movement of air itself? Because it just.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It's the same thing. It's the same thing. It's a shock wave.
Chuck Nice
It's still a shock wave.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It's a shockwave. That's correct. And you know something else? This is really cool. Okay. Okay. You know, the speed of light drops when it goes into transparent solid materials. So speed of light is lower in glass. It's even lower in diamond.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay, now suppose you have a particle that you send through that material that goes faster than the speed of light. Because you can do that. There's no rule against it. All right. It's not my fault the light is slow. That's not my fault. I'm obeying Einstein. I don't care that we're in glass or in diamond or in water. Okay? So it turns out when particles do that, they make a kind of sonic boom of their own, but it's not sonic. It's light.
Chuck Nice
A light boom.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yeah, it's a light boom. Oh, it's a light boom.
Chuck Nice
Well, that sounds delightful.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
And so it's a similar phenomenon, but it's happening sort of electromagnetically, and it emits its own kind of radiation for having done so. So it's a more general phenomenon and a principle, shockwaves. It's all part of the same discussion of going faster than the medium wants you to go. And there you have it.
Chuck Nice
That's very cool. Well, you know, a light boom. You know, in production, there's a stand that you hang a light on,
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I guess. So that's a real. A really boring version.
Chuck Nice
I know.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Definition of the word.
Chuck Nice
I was gonna say that, like, your light booms are way better than mine.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Way cooler than the sound guys. Boom. Right, right, right.
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Chuck Nice
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Neil deGrasse Tyson
Hi, I'm Ernie Carducci from Columbus, Ohio. I'M here with my son Ernie because we listen to StarTalk every night and support StarTalk on Patreon. This is Star Talk with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Chuck?
Chuck Nice
Yes.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
What time of day is the sun the highest in the sky?
Chuck Nice
Oh, I don't know. High noon.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
High noon? Yeah, high noon. And unless it's daylight savings time and then it's like one o'.
Chuck Nice
Clock.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay, what's the hottest time of day?
Chuck Nice
Normally around 3 o'.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Clock. Why isn't it when the sun is at its highest.
Chuck Nice
Why are you doing this to me? I was just trying to. What is this?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Why are you grilling me?
Chuck Nice
No, let me think here.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
When the sun is at its highest point in the sky, it is maximally heating the Earth in that.
Chuck Nice
Oh, well, then that makes sense. Because if it's at that point that it starts to maximally heat the Earth, then it would take a little longer for the Earth to actually. No, that don't make no sense. I take it back. I'm trying to think here. Why would it be.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Because every moment after that it's heating the Earth less. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. Until sunset, when it's not heating the Earth at all. Not your side of the Earth at least. Right. So, okay, so I want to explain.
Chuck Nice
Oh, so my explanation was correct. Okay.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
But not for why. Not.
Chuck Nice
Not for why.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yes, but no.
Chuck Nice
Yes, but no.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I got you. All right, here it goes.
Chuck Nice
It was a valiant effort.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay, so. But the sun emits a lot of bands of light, but primarily emits light in the visible part of the spectrum. And we all know that those are the colors of the rainbow.
Chuck Nice
Yes. One of my favorite stories, and it's not a story. One of my favorite recountings that you have done, and I believe you did on the first season of Cosmos was the scientist who was measuring the light. And then outside of the spectrum that he was recording, there was a temperature change. And he knew then because of that, that there had to be a light that we don't know or see that is making this change. I love that. I just love that recounting.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
And he said it in his very sort of 18th century flare. He called it light unfit for vision.
Chuck Nice
Light unfit for vision.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Cool. Yeah. So he discovered infrared light, and it was William Herschel who did it.
Chuck Nice
William Herschel.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yes. Yeah. All right, so here's the thing. So the sun emits infrared, which we can't see. It emits ultraviolet, which we can't see. And both of Those are bands of light outside of the bands we do see. So it's red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. All right, and the Roy G Biv. And the sun peaks right there in the middle between yellow and green. All right, so more energy comes from the sun right there in yellow and green than in any other part of the spectrum. All right. The fact that you can see the sun through the atmosphere means the air is not absorbing any of that energy. Well, if the air is not absorbed because you can see the sun, it got through the atmosphere to the bottom to the base of the atmosphere, where your eyeballs are. So now watch. So the light comes all the way through. It's not getting absorbed by the atmosphere. It hits the ground. And the ground absorbs the sunlight. Ah, not the air. Okay. So now the ground absorbs the yellow light and the green light and the blue light and the red light absorbs it all. That heats the molecules on Earth's surface. Then the molecules re. Radiate that same energy, but in a different part of the spectrum.
Chuck Nice
Interesting.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It re radiates it as infrared, and the infrared gets absorbed by the atmosphere. So there's a time delay right between when the sun is slamming us with visible light and when Earth's surface responds back with infrared, heating the air. Now, you put the thermometer in the air. You say, oh, the temperature is going up. Did it go up at high noon? No, no, it took a couple hours.
Chuck Nice
Wow.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
For that. To build that.
Chuck Nice
So I. I had to see. Kids, this is why you gotta go to school, okay? This is why you gotta go. To learn. So that you can actually learn things the proper way to learn them.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I'm not done yet. Okay.
Chuck Nice
Get out.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
So if that's the case, that means the farther away you are from Earth's surface.
Chuck Nice
Right. The cooler it's going to be, the
Neil deGrasse Tyson
cooler it's gonna be.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
You ever go from sea level to a mountaintop?
Chuck Nice
Oh, God, yes. It's lovely.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay. The temperature drop.
Chuck Nice
What a refreshing climb.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay. You say no, I've never hiked it. I'm taking a tram, but I'm not hiking it. Oh, hell no. So generally it's cooler on mountaintops because it's farther away from the general Earth surface that's there. Not only that, if you go up in an airplane, well, forget it. If you ever looked at the temperature gauge that sometimes they show in the front of the, you know, at the bulkhead, you'll see the temperature drop 40 below zero.
Chuck Nice
Yeah, exactly.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Just a few miles up. Why is it so Cold up there. Is it because you're closer to space? No, no, it's because you're farther away from where the sunlight is actually doing the heating. And that's right above the Earth's surface. In fact, in meteorology there's a rule about how high above Earth's surface. You have to put the thermometer so that everybody can get a consistent reading.
Chuck Nice
Interesting.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It's not directly above the ground. You gotta pull it up a little so there's some mixing of the air so that everybody can get a nice consistent, sensible reading of the temperature.
Chuck Nice
I love that.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I'm not done yet.
Chuck Nice
Oh, get out.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay, so now watch infrared. Do you know what traps infrared? Greenhouse gases.
Chuck Nice
Uh oh.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Do you know what the predominant number one greenhouse molecule in the atmosphere is? Water vapor. Water vapor. Yeah, the water molecule. Okay, so let's do an experiment. Let's take away the water molecules from where you are. There's a word for such places, what are they called?
Chuck Nice
Deserts.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Deserts. Thank you. So the temperature rises in mid afternoon in the desert. Then the sun sets. What happens to that heat that the ground had accumulated from the sun? It gets re radiated as infrared. Does it get trapped? No, no, it escapes. And the nighttime temperature in the desert plummets.
Chuck Nice
Yes. And that is the weirdest thing about the desert is you will die of a sunstroke during the day and you will die of overexposure at hypothermia at night. Hypothermia at night.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
You gotta be ready for a 40 degree range of temperature from maximum heating in the afternoon, maximum warming of the air to when everything just radiates away. And by the way, when there's no sun, you're just losing heat. So therefore the coldest time of the day is when
Chuck Nice
I'm going to say in the. Well, the coldest time of any.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
The day of the 24 hour day. When is it?
Chuck Nice
12 midnight or 3 o' clock in the morning? 3 o' clock in the morning?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
No, no, just before sunrise.
Chuck Nice
Oh yeah. Cause there's been no sun all day.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
There's been no sun. It's been cooling off the whole time.
Chuck Nice
The entire time.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Take a look at temperature plots.
Chuck Nice
All right.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Exactly. Okay. It'll peak in the mid afternoon and it'll. No matter where you are, it'll do that. And then it'll go to its lowest point just before sunrise. And then the sun starts giving you the energy again.
Chuck Nice
See that's. I gotta stop overthinking things. Cause I'm talking to you and I'll Start overthinking.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I get basic questions. I'm not trying to. These aren't trick questions.
Chuck Nice
I know. Okay, but it's still. Yeah, but you're right. Yeah. That the sun has not been present all that time. It makes sense that just before the reappearance of the sun, that would be the coldest time.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Correct. And I got to correct something that people have gotten wrong.
Chuck Nice
Okay.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
They'll say, when is the darkest time of night?
Chuck Nice
Just before the dawn.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
No, see, that's bullshit. Okay,
Chuck Nice
that's bullshit.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay, sorry. Anytime. It is not twilight, you are basically equally as dark the entire night no matter what. So you want pick midnight. If you want, fine. But that whole time you are good to go. None of this. The darkest is just before dawn.
Chuck Nice
Just before the dawn.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yeah. It's just bullshit, right?
Chuck Nice
Yeah, right, exactly.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
That's like saying it's the darkest in the room just before I turn on the light. Well, it was dark that whole time before you turn on the light.
Chuck Nice
Right, exactly. Yeah.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
All right, so. But wait, I'm not done. There are certain places like Hawaii and Iceland, where the range from the high to the low temperature in any 24 hour period is very narrow. Check out the climate data for those two places.
Chuck Nice
I know this for a fact, but go ahead.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
And so why?
Chuck Nice
Oh, I don't know. I just used to stay in Hawaii for a bit. I spent a few months living there.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yeah, like 76 in the daytime and maybe 68 at night.
Chuck Nice
Yeah.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
You know, and so that's because they're in the middle of the oceans and the ocean has very high humidity that stabilizes the flow of the heating between day and night.
Chuck Nice
Oh, I got you.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It slows it down so you heat your. So I've done this even as a New York City resident. Okay. The way you want to minimize the temperature drop is you have a perfectly a sunny day, then at sunset, moist clouds come in, then they'll trap the heat. You hold the heat, they'll hold the heat overnight.
Chuck Nice
That's hot. I mean, that's cool. That's great.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
So this is why you get huge temperature swings in the deserts. Why you don't in humid climates, the tropics, and of course in island nations. It's also why it's hotter a couple hours after the middle of the day than right at the middle of the day. And one other thing. The day of the year where the arc of the sun is longest and highest in the sky is the first day of summer, June 21st.
Chuck Nice
That's right.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Chuck, what is the hottest month of the year, at least in the Northern hemisphere.
Chuck Nice
August.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yeah. It's not June. It's not even really July. It's August. So for the same reason, climactically, what goes on in a daytime cycle actually goes on in a seasonal cycle.
Chuck Nice
So. Wow.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
You have maximum ground heating in June, but there's a lag between the ground heating and the ground responding to this. And seasonally, that takes a couple of
Chuck Nice
months to build, not to mention the ocean temperatures in those areas.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Also delayed. Right. Also delayed.
Chuck Nice
Super cool, man.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
There you have it.
Chuck Nice
I thought this was gonna be a boring one. I did. This is crazy.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I don't wanna let you down here. And I didn't title this one. This is like the Temperature during the Day.
Chuck Nice
Okay, we need a better. We need a better title than the Temperature during the Day.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Right, right. And why It's Cold.
Chuck Nice
How about Fun with Fahrenheit?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I like that.
Chuck Nice
Fun with. Fun with Fahrenheit.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
With Fahrenheit. And so. And like I said, when you're in an airplane, you are so far away from the ground, the ground had no chance of heating the air you're flying in.
Chuck Nice
Right.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
And so it could be 40 below up at, you know, five miles up where you're flying at 30,000ft. And one final thought.
Chuck Nice
Go ahead.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay. Do you know the temperature, The Fahrenheit and Celsius temperature scales.
Chuck Nice
Correct.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
You know they're different. Right. But do you know they actually cross on a graph?
Chuck Nice
I did not know that.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay.
Chuck Nice
Because I thought they were running parallel.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yeah, they're not parallel. No, it's. Celsius is parallel to Kelvin, but Celsius is not parallel.
Chuck Nice
Parallel to Fahrenheit.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
To Fahrenheit. So, for example, what is it? Boiling water is what, Fahrenheit?
Chuck Nice
212.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
And it's 100 Celsius. What's the temperature? What's the degree difference between those 112 degrees? 112 degrees. On Celsius, what temperature does water freeze?
Chuck Nice
Zero.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
On Fahrenheit, what temperature does it freeze?
Chuck Nice
Oh, 32.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
So what's the temperature difference there?
Chuck Nice
That's only 32 degrees.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It is. So the difference between Celsius and Fahrenheit is shrinking as you get colder.
Chuck Nice
Colder.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay. There is a temperature where, if you plotted this, those two graphs Cross.
Chuck Nice
Cross. That makes sense.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Which means at that temperature, they equal each other numerically. And that temperature is exactly 40 below.
Chuck Nice
Nice.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
So when I say, oh, it's 40 below and you say, oh, was it Fahrenheit or temperature? I might just mess with your head.
Chuck Nice
Make a difference.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. It's so cold. Doesn't matter.
Chuck Nice
This gotta matter.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
And then I say do the math. And there's a little formula to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius. And if you put in one temperature, you get the other. If you put in 40 for one of them, but minus 40, minus 40 comes out the other side. So it's an equation at that point that gives you the same answer going in as coming out. It's very cool.
Chuck Nice
Yo man, I'm getting a T shirt that says I'm 40 below. Cause I'm cool anywhere, baby.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I'm cool. Celsius or Fahrenheit?
Chuck Nice
I'm ice cold anywhere. All right, T Mobile 5G Home Internet has some big news you should know about. They now have the fastest 5G home Internet according to the experts at Ookla Speed Test. All right, so let's unpack that. It means photo backups happen faster. Streaming a documentary does install halfway through. What's really notable is that the jump in speed doesn't come with added complexity. Setup is simple. Plug it in and you're online in less than 15 minutes. And the value side of the equation holds too, with a plan price that's backed by a five year price guarantee. So if you want the fastest 5G home Internet with a simple setup and savings that stick, get t mobile 5G home Internet. And if you don't want that, wait a minute, why wouldn't you want that? Just visit t mobile.com homeinternet to check availability today. Price guarantee exclusions like taxes and fees apply. Fastest based on Ookla Speed test intelligence data second half 2025 all rights reserved.
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Chuck Nice
We've all been there. You hold onto a coupon, hoping to cash it in at the store. But then you forget about it and suddenly you've got a mountain of useless expired coupons.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Do you think this one's still good? Free milk.
Chuck Nice
Oh, mate, that expired in 1993.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Dang it.
Chuck Nice
Fortunately, there are better ways to save money. Like by switching to Geico. You could save about $900 on car insurance without ever touching a couple coupon.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Ooh, how about this one? Half off floppy discs.
Chuck Nice
Now you should try a bit of spring cleaning. It feels good to save big. It feels good to Geico.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Ask me where wind comes from.
Chuck Nice
Oh, I know. It's. It's my uncle and dude thinks it's funny. He's kind of rude. Doesn't make a difference if we're at the table or not. It's terrible.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Doesn't apologize or nothing.
Chuck Nice
Apologize or nothing. Sometimes he's proud of it. Not cool. Not cool. Not cool.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay. Ask me about meteorological winds. Oh, okay.
Chuck Nice
Where does meteoro meteorological wind come from?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I will quote Ogden Nash.
Chuck Nice
Ogden Nash?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yes, yes. The playful poet Ogden Nash. Wind is caused by trees waving their branches.
Chuck Nice
That guy was stupid. Let me tell you right now, I do not know where wind comes from. I'll be honest. I don't know where wind comes from. But I know this much. It don't come from trees waving. Hey, how y' all doing?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
How would you know? Because.
Chuck Nice
And I'll tell you why this is important.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
This is a bit of science here, okay? You. How do you. When it's windy out, trees are swaying, right? So how would you test what the cause and effect is of that?
Chuck Nice
Because two things.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
One, wind could be caused by fast spinning anemometers, okay? The weather vanes. It could be, you know, it could
Chuck Nice
also be caused by a butterfly flapping its wings.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
In Japan, a big butterfly.
Chuck Nice
Mothra.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Mothra.
Chuck Nice
The Mothra Approaches Tokyo. No, the reason is because I hear the wind and then I see the tree move. So that means the wind was there.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Don't complain about what sequence you obtain data. The wind didn't hit your ear first. And the tree's waiting for it to get through your head and then hit it.
Chuck Nice
Sometimes it does. Sometimes I hear the wind and then I see the tree move. I'm like, that's something behind me. Something came by me and moved that tree.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Those are the trees a quarter mile away.
Chuck Nice
Could be.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
All right, so. No, this is very. It's actually very simple. Okay. You have wind, which is a readjustment of air pressure. That's really what's going on.
Chuck Nice
Okay, I don't see. You say it like that. You say it like that. Just explained it to me. Sorry.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Okay, you're late.
Chuck Nice
No, what you have is basically readjustment of air pressure. That's all. That's what it is. That's all it is.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
We're done here.
Chuck Nice
Done. No, thanks.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
So it's the unequal heating of Earth's surface.
Chuck Nice
Oh, now that makes sense.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
That's what it is.
Chuck Nice
Okay, that's cool.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
And so if it's warmer in one place than another, and plus Earth is rotating. So these factors conspire so that if air ever rises, well, that wouldn't cause wind as we know it, because wind goes horizontally to the surface. But if you have rising air because it just got heated, what has to happen next? You don't create a vacuum below. Well, you do, but. But then what happens?
Chuck Nice
You have falling air.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Sorry. Yes, that's very good. If air rises, you'll also have falling air. That's true in total. But the pocket of atmosphere directly below where the air had gone up. Okay, what happens there?
Chuck Nice
Oh, it has to be filled.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It's gotta be filled.
Chuck Nice
So you get an updraft.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It gets filled from the sides, right? Oh, it gets filled from the sides. Sides, Wheat. Yes.
Chuck Nice
Oh, my God. That's how it works. Yes. That's so cool.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yes. Okay.
Chuck Nice
I'm telling you, Earth is tricky.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Earth is tricky.
Chuck Nice
Earth got some tricks.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Earth got some tricks. So you have rising air. It creates a partial vacuum. Other, which is a pressure difference. And then other air says, we have to fill that gap. Let's go there. And so there it goes.
Chuck Nice
Okay, nice.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
So if you look at hurricanes, for example, very, very low pressure in the middle, you have heated, warm, warm, moist. What we call unstable air. If air is unstable, it rises. Okay. In that low pressure system, all the clouds in the neighborhood want to go there. Sweet. Everything wants to go to the center of a hurricane.
Chuck Nice
It's the Cloud nightclub. Yo, man, you going to the Eye tonight? You going to the Eye? Yo, yo, man, I heard the eye is going to be hot tonight.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
So all the clouds try to come in, but then earth rotation sort of veers them to the right. No matter which way they're trying to head into the front entrance of the eye Club, they veer to the right. And so you have this circulation while the clouds are trying to get to the middle. And this gives you that spiraling storm spiral effect. And everybody trying to get into the middle. And so hurricanes have famously fast winds because of this, like hundreds of miles an hour in the fastest of them. Fastest of them.
Chuck Nice
Now,
Neil deGrasse Tyson
if you have air that is descending. Okay. Air that descends first, it won't make a cloud. Okay. So descending air is like generally clear skies. Deserts have descending air. Oh, okay. Now, there's certain parts of the world where the descending air is so sort of total and is sort of gently descending. And it can go out the sides. But if the area of the descending air is large enough, then there's no sideways wind.
Chuck Nice
Wow.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
These areas of Earth's surface, especially over the ocean, are called the doldrums.
Chuck Nice
That's the club that nobody wants to go to. Sorry.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
You got the hurricane eye and you got the doldrums.
Chuck Nice
It's like, man, I couldn't get into the eye last night. Now I gotta go to the doldrums.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
The doldrums. So the doldrums are regions of Earth's surface where all the wind has ceased. And if you happen to be a sailing ship that wanders into the doldrums. Wow. Oh, my gosh.
Chuck Nice
That's bad stuff.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
That's it. That's it. Many a ship have just given up the ghost in the doldrums because you can't. You can't move if they don't have oars and there's no wind. Nothing. Nothing. And they eat up their food supply. They eat each other, whatever. And that's it.
Chuck Nice
Wow. It's like the great. It's like the great wind garbage patch of the ocean.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Like the plastic patch.
Chuck Nice
Plastic patch. It just accumulates. It goes nowhere. It's the wind version.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I thought of it that way.
Chuck Nice
Yeah. That's terrible.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It's a fascinating, disturbed analogy. It is.
Chuck Nice
Oh, that's terrible, though.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Now, a couple of things. Couple other things. So Mars has famously large windstorms, and we call them dust storms because the wind picks up the dust. You know, the Martian red dust surface.
Chuck Nice
Dust.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yeah, yeah. And so you can see this. In fact, when it happens, it cloaks the Martian surface. And so our telescopes and space probes, we can't see what's at the bottom. It's basically one of these, like, sandstorms you've read about in the desert. But it's like a dust storm on Mars.
Chuck Nice
Or it's a very clever cloaking device that the Martians use to stop us from looking at them when they're doing stuff on the surface of Mars.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yeah, exactly, Chuck, that's. But do you remember the face on Mars? Listen. Do you remember the face on Mars? So it was back in the 70s. There was like the famous face on Mars. It was like some kind of a. Like a structure that had eye sockets, a nose and a mouth. And it looked like a huge. It was huge. Huge. And we got a couple photos of it during the Viking missions. And everyone said, we gotta go back. Clearly, there's life there. Okay. By the way, if there's life and that represented it, it would have to be life that had sort of a simian face. Like most life on Earth doesn't have a face. So that would be weird. If life on a whole other planet had a humanoid face, that would just be weird. Okay. Just saying. But lobsters don't have. Did we notice the lobster monument that was there? No, because we're only looking for stuff that looks like us. All right, so we went back and you saw. And we had better. Higher resolution. And you saw a hint of, like, where the eyebrows were in the mouth. But it was mostly sort of. And people said the Martians knew we were looking at them. They covered it up. They covered it up with their Mars dust. Here's my point. The Martian atmosphere is 1/100 the thickness of Earth's atmosphere.
Chuck Nice
Oh, that's terrible. There's. That's barely.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
So. It's barely any atmosphere. So if you move that air 100 miles an hour.
Chuck Nice
Yeah.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
You ain't got.
Chuck Nice
It's like a. It's like a. It's like an infant trying to blow out a birthday candle. You know, just.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It's like,
Chuck Nice
I'm giving up.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
And that's why the whole scene in the movie the Martian where they can't leave. They're trying to leave the planet until the windstorm dust storm is coming and
Chuck Nice
the rocket is rocking.
Sponsor/Announcer
Come on.
Chuck Nice
It's rocking back and forth.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
And they take off and they gotta leave Mart Watney on the surface. Cause they're afraid they'll topple over from the wind.
Chuck Nice
Ah, man, another movie ruined.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Thank you, Neil.
Chuck Nice
No. Yeah, that can't happen then, right? That just can't even happen.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yeah, yeah. It's not. It's not happening. It might be dusty and you can't. You can't see. Yeah, but you're not blowing over any spaceships with water.
Chuck Nice
So it's also not gonna. It's also not gonna pick up a rod, a metal rod, and spear you with it. Because it's not gonna do that either.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yeah, it's not tornado speed. Right, Right. So point is, Mars is also an unevenly heated planet, and that's why you get that. Correct. Correct.
Chuck Nice
All right, Wait a minute.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Wait, wait, wait, wait. What?
Chuck Nice
I gotta ask you this now, all right? And this is off the explainer chart, but I gotta do it. Okay. I know that you know him, so did you ask him about that when he wrote this?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Like, are you talking about Andy Weir? Andy?
Chuck Nice
Yeah. Did you actually ask him?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I got all up in his situation. But then what I said was. What I said was, okay, Andy. So much else in that novel later. The movie was so well calculated and thought through. I'm gonna give you a hall pass on this one.
Chuck Nice
Oh, okay.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Because without it, he's got no story.
Chuck Nice
Yeah, he's got. He had to do. It was poetic license for a Mars hurricane so he could get to the rest of the story.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yeah. So I gave it to him. Cause he did the rest of his homework. See, I'm not totally evil. Commentator. I will cut you some slack if you're an artist. As Mark Twain said, first get your facts straight, then distort them at your leisure.
Chuck Nice
Okay?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
That's Mark Twain's edict. So I'm all in on that. By the way, Venus is very evenly heated over its surface, and we think it has hardly any winds there at all.
Chuck Nice
Nice. Yes. Yeah, It's a refreshing 900 degrees.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Well, you would vaporize. But ignoring that complication. No wind needed. No wind needed.
Chuck Nice
It's so even. It's so even. It's not a dry heat.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It's an even heat.
Chuck Nice
You're good.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
That's the joke I heard about help. They say, you know, you ask some evil person, how's hell? Yeah, it's hot, but it's low humidity, so we're fine.
Chuck Nice
That's funny.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Actually, Chuck, we gotta end it there. This is a windy. Starting off with your uncle. Yes, we had a windy. A windy explainer. Four star talk. Dad meet you.
Chuck Nice
Always a pleasure.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil Degrasse Tyson here keep looking up.
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MGLIS Lebricizumab LBKZ a 250mg per 2ml injection is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical topical therapies. EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to ebglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Eglis before starting ebglis. Tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection.
Ask your doctor about eglis and visit eglis.lilly.com or call 1-800-lilyrx or 1-800-545-5979.
Chuck Nice
And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Hey everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date?
Chuck Nice
Oh no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yeah, the bird looks out of your league anyways.
Chuck Nice
Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty.
Episode Title: Things You Thought You Knew – Sonic BOOM!
Host: Neil deGrasse Tyson
Co-host: Chuck Nice
Date: March 24, 2026
Theme: An energetic exploration of "Things You Thought You Knew" about sonic booms, temperature cycles, and wind—where classic science meets lively humor.
This episode is a masterclass in science communication as Neil deGrasse Tyson breaks down commonly misunderstood concepts: sonic booms, why the hottest time of day isn’t “high noon,” and where wind really comes from. Joined by comedian Chuck Nice, the duo uses humor and clear analogies to transform fundamental physics into “aha!” insights, grounding them in everyday experiences and pop culture.
(Content Begins at 01:47)
Sound vs. Speed
"The fact that you heard the plane and looked up and then you see it approaching means the sound got to you ahead of the plane." (02:20)
Breaking the Sound Barrier
"So it's like your plane made a wake of nothing that is being filled with the sound that you left behind." (05:52)
Everyday Sonic Booms
"It's a mini sonic boom. We used to do in the locker room, you get like a rat tail with a towel." (07:57)
Sonic Booms and Architecture:
"If you think something is causing something, look for anything else that could swamp that effect. And if you find something that does, then formulate another question." (10:58)
Sonic Booms from Meteors
Light "Booms" – Čerenkov Radiation
"So it turns out when particles do that, they make a kind of sonic boom of their own, but it's not sonic. It's light." (11:37)
(Segment begins ~16:00)
Why isn't 'high noon' the hottest time of day?
"The sun emits a lot of bands of light... primarily in the visible part of the spectrum... The ground absorbs the sunlight... heats the molecules, and then re-radiates that same energy, but in... infrared, and the infrared gets absorbed by the atmosphere. So there's a time delay right between when the sun is slamming us with visible light, and when Earth's surface responds back with infrared, heating the air." (19:36)
The Desert Example—Humidity vs. Heating
"The temperature rises in mid afternoon in the desert. Then the sun sets. What happens to that heat...it gets re radiated as infrared. Does it get trapped? No... the nighttime temperature in the desert plummets." (22:12)
Temperature Dips and Peaks
"Take a look at temperature plots. It’ll peak in the mid-afternoon and ... it'll go to its lowest point just before sunrise." (23:29)
"That's bullshit. Anytime... it is not twilight, you are basically equally as dark the entire night no matter what." (24:09)
Climate Stability in Oceanic Regions
Annual 'Temperature Lag'
Fun Fact: Temperature Scales Cross
"There is a temperature where, if you plotted this, those two graphs cross... that temperature is exactly 40 below." (28:52)
"I'm getting a T shirt that says I'm 40 below. Cause I'm cool anywhere, baby." (29:27)
(Segment begins ~32:27)
Comedic Setup
Poetic Falsehoods
"'Wind is caused by trees waving their branches.'" (33:07)
True Cause: Atmospheric Pressure Readjustment
"You have wind, which is a readjustment of air pressure. That’s really what's going on." (35:11)
Air Movement & Hurricanes
"All the clouds try to come in, but then earth rotation sort of veers them to the right... so you have this circulation." (37:53)
"It's the cloud nightclub. Yo, man, you going to the Eye tonight?... I heard the eye is going to be hot tonight." (37:37)
The Doldrums
"The doldrums are regions of Earth's surface where all the wind has ceased." (39:20)
Wind on Mars and Venus
"If you move that air 100 miles an hour... It's like an infant trying to blow out a birthday candle." (42:35)
"Yeah, it's not happening. It might be dusty and you can't see. Yeah, but you're not blowing over any spaceships with [Mars'] wind." (43:30)
Atmospheric Humor:
"They say, you know, you ask some evil person, how's hell? Yeah, it's hot, but it's low humidity, so we're fine." (45:42)
On the Sound Barrier:
"It's not really a barrier, but we used to think it was one... If you go the speed of sound, Mach 1.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson (05:08)
On Sonic Booms and Meteors:
“That’s why you’ll never know. People say, oh, look, here it comes. No, you don’t know until it’s too late, till it already hits.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson (11:06)
On Discovering Infrared:
“He called it light unfit for vision.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson, quoting William Herschel (18:03)
On Causality:
“If you think something is causing something, look for anything else that could swamp that effect. And if you find something that does, then formulate another question.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson (10:58)
On The Doldrums:
“That’s it. Many a ship have just given up the ghost in the doldrums because you can’t move... and they eat up their food supply. They eat each other, whatever. And that’s it.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson (39:47)
On Being 'Cool':
"I'm getting a T-shirt that says I'm 40 below. Cause I'm cool anywhere, baby." – Chuck Nice (29:27)
On Artistic License in Science Fiction:
"So I gave it to him. Cause he did the rest of his homework. See, I’m not totally evil... As Mark Twain said, first get your facts straight, then distort them at your leisure.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson (44:41)
From the dramatic clap of a sonic boom to the subtle complexity of daily temperature swings, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice make science fun and relatable. This episode reveals that what we “thought we knew” about sound, heat, and wind is always worth a second look—especially when taught with such infectious enthusiasm.
“Keep looking up!” – Neil deGrasse Tyson (46:13)