A proper law

[Brian Morrison]

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On Thu, 6 Mar 2003 13:48:11 +0000 in
20030306134811.GL1422@elara.ftel.co.uk Ian G Batten
<I.G.Batten@ftel.co.uk> wrote:

> To me, far more interesting are the breaks into Fish and Tunny, which
> on the face of it are fairly strong systems.  My reading of the
> published materials is that large amounts of what was done, and why,
> have not been published, perhaps with a very good reason.

I've thought that for a long time, and it is clear that while much has
surfaced about the attacks on Enigma, the other two systems seem to have
been broken by a stunning leap of logic that is not at all clear.

> 
> > Perhaps one example is the exciting work being done to prove that
> > movement faster than the speed of light occurs. It's hard to
> > remember now that there were once educated people who thought the
> > movement faster than the speed of sound would be impossible.
> 
> I didn't know that that theory was advanced.  It'd be interesting to
> know when: the muzzle velocity of a rifle in .303 is well over 2000fps
> (speed of sound is of the order to 1000fps, depending upon altitude)
> and those were available in the late 19th century.  Even .38-40 is
> supersonic under certain circumstances.

The Bell XS-1 (later the X-1) was shaped like a .50 calibre bullet for
this very reason, that a supersonic bullet exhibited stable trajectory.
The wings and tail were made as thin as possible for minimum disturbance
of this stability and minimum shock wave impingement on the control
surfaces.

- -- 

Brian Morrison

bdm at fenrir dot org dot uk
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