Why do bombs make a whistling sound when they fall?
According to Science ABC , Gravity’s Rainbow – Thomas Pynchon’s great World War II novel – begins with one of the most memorable lines in literature. A scream resounded in the sky. It happened before, but nothing to compare with now. It is too late.
The Germans designed bombs that sounded like a whistle when it fell.
The sound has been described as a “whistling” sound produced by a V-2 rocket as it fell through the sky during a destruction mission. Movies and TV shows that talk about the wars of the 20th century often include such a whistling sound when describing a falling bomb. For those unfamiliar with military technology, this whistling whistle may sound rather unusual, they may think that on the battlefield it is okay to issue such a warning sound to the enemy. not wise. First of all, does that whistling really exist, and if so, what caused it?
When you’re watching a Hollywood re-enactment of a famous World War 2 battle, the screeching of falling bombs will certainly help create tension, but there’s a truth behind this terrifying sound. During World War II, the Germans designed bombs that sounded like a whistle when it fell. Normally, a metal object with sharp edges, like a bomb, will make a small noise when dropped in the air, unless it exceeds the sound barrier (343 meters per second) it will produce Bang.
However, by designing bombs with whistle-like attachments, the Germans used psychological warfare as much as physical warfare. Whistling is associated with death from above, and since bombing raids in London and other European cities were often carried out in the middle of the night, that whistling became a nightmare sound. and worry. London bombing survivors still remember the haunting whistles of death from their underground shelters.
Many people believe that the whistle is to warn civilians of impending danger.
Some historians and soldiers argue that the whistling was meant to warn civilians of impending danger , so they might have had time to cover up or flee, but that theory falls apart when you look at it. into the physics of such sounds. It’s nearly impossible to tell which direction the bomb came from by the whistle, so it could be headed straight for you, or it could land 120 yards away. Moreover, the flight time of those bombs will be relatively short, so even if you hear the whistle of a falling bomb, you will have very little time to react or flee immediately.
There is also a special type of German fighter, called the Stuka, which is designed to make a whistling sound every time it dives in. This has the same effect as falling bombs (planes can make this sound just before the bomb drops, so it’s very discriminating).
For those who pay attention to small details, depictions of bombs falling in Hollywood movies are often inaccurate. When the bomb is dropped and the whistling begins, the pilot will hear the pitch start quite high and then fade as he moves away from the source of the noise; this is a classic sound effect (sounds like “Wheeeeeeezzzzz—–Boom!” ) and you may have heard it in movies or cartoons.
The fact that the pilot can clearly hear the bomb is a classic effect on the movies. Quite the opposite, in fact, as the whistling bomb rapidly approaches the ground, thanks to the Doppler Effect , the whistling sound will increase, just as a police siren increases as it approaches you. In other words, the whistle would peak right before impacting the ground, but that’s rarely the sound effects added to the fight scenes!