NASA's Successful Quantifying of Comedy Timing (By Penn Jillette and Teller)
1–10 of 33 posts
Re: NASA's Successful Quantifying of Comedy Timing (By Penn Jillette and Teller)
#2Thanks for sharing. Despite being a P&T fan for years I had never read that before.
Re: NASA's Successful Quantifying of Comedy Timing (By Penn Jillette and Teller)
#3I'll always regret not seeing a shuttle launch. I went once and it was cancelled due to poor weather.
Hopefully NASA will replace it with something equally spectacular, or perhaps I'll just have to wait and enjoy a private launch (from on-board).
Re: NASA's Successful Quantifying of Comedy Timing (By Penn Jillette and Teller)
#4As the last Space Shuttle flight flew, I remembered this essay as well. I never saw a launch live, unfortunately. But 14 years later, this writing has stuck with me. Others have also written about the experience, but none (that I've seen) is quite as vivid. Unsolicited but related trivia: in Jay Barbree's "Live from Cape Canaveral", he mentions that the SS blast offs were more impressive than the Saturn V, which I found surprising, since the Saturn V could lift more.
Re: NASA's Successful Quantifying of Comedy Timing (By Penn Jillette and Teller)
#5Living in Florida, I've been fortunate enough to see a few shuttle launches, as well as various rockets. The sound is really an incredible thing. I watched the last one from the bridge stretching from Titusville to the Kennedy Space Center, about the closest one can get without needing a pass. At that distance, the sound takes around 30 seconds to reach the viewers and it's not even that loud, but you can feel the power behind it.
Even more impressive, I watched STS-131 from my hometown one morning. Even from the West Coast of Florida, I could hear the unique sound and power from the shuttle.
I drove around 400 miles round trip to see the last Shuttle Launch, but it was completely worth it to see, in person, humans going into space. If every member of Congress could experience that at least once, NASA would likely not have any more funding problems.
Re: NASA's Successful Quantifying of Comedy Timing (By Penn Jillette and Teller)
#6As the last Space Shuttle flight flew, I remembered this essay as well. I never saw a launch live, unfortunately. But 14 years later, this writing has stuck with me. Others have also written about the experience, but none (that I've seen) is quite as vivid. Unsolicited but related trivia: in Jay Barbree's "Live from Cape Canaveral", he mentions that the SS blast offs were more impressive than the Saturn V, which I fo…
Those booster rockets on the shuttle were ridiculous. The Saturns were before my time, but I've seen some Delta launches, and an Ares launch, and the shuttle put them TO SHAME.
One thing I will remember most about going to college near KSC will be watching shuttle launches. I don't think there is anything on this world that is more impressive than putting our people into space on a pillar of fire.
Re: NASA's Successful Quantifying of Comedy Timing (By Penn Jillette and Teller)
#7Living in Florida, I've been fortunate enough to see a few shuttle launches, as well as various rockets. The sound is really an incredible thing. I watched the last one from the bridge stretching from Titusville to the Kennedy Space Center, about the closest one can get without needing a pass. At that distance, the sound takes around 30 seconds to reach the viewers and it's not even that loud, but you can feel the po…
I'm jealous. For the last three years, living in Daytona, I've vowed I would drop everything to see the very last launch. And then they extended the program, and the launch was in the summer while I was out of state.
Re: NASA's Successful Quantifying of Comedy Timing (By Penn Jillette and Teller)
#8[deleted]
Re: NASA's Successful Quantifying of Comedy Timing (By Penn Jillette and Teller)
#9Living in Florida, I've been fortunate enough to see a few shuttle launches, as well as various rockets. The sound is really an incredible thing. I watched the last one from the bridge stretching from Titusville to the Kennedy Space Center, about the closest one can get without needing a pass. At that distance, the sound takes around 30 seconds to reach the viewers and it's not even that loud, but you can feel the po…
I'm jealous. For the last three years, living in Daytona, I've vowed I would drop everything to see the very last launch. And then they extended the program, and the launch was in the summer while I was out of state.
My plan for the last one was to go to Daytona since I figured the traffic would be horrible in Titusville and the Shuttle takes off to the north anyway. I ended up driving South until I hit traffic, which happened to be extremely close to the launch. I live out of state most of the year, so I was happy to hear the last launch would be during the Summer.
Though it wouldn't have worked well on the last launch due to the clouds, I'm sure there's other launches you could have seen from Daytona.
Another anecdote: The first launch I saw when I was a little kid, probably seven years old. I was riding in the back seat of my mom's car and happened to look out the back window. When I looked back, I saw the a fireball rising into the sky, which of course was the shuttle.
Also, about two years ago, I was driving home with my girlfriend one night and we saw a star which seemed to be moving higher into the sky. Suddenly, it disappeared. I couldn't find any mention of rocket launches until, after extensive searching, it turned out to be a secret CIA satellite.
Re: NASA's Successful Quantifying of Comedy Timing (By Penn Jillette and Teller)
#10tl;dr
"The NASA definition of comedy timing is the difference between the speed of light and the speed of sound over a distance of 3.7 miles. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second (I knew that off the top of my head). The speed of sound is 1,116 feet per second (I had to look that up). With the two traveling over 3.7 miles that’s 17.505 seconds."