Incoming!

[Orionaut]

Movie trope!

"Incoming" Shells, Mortars, whatever are always represented in movies by a descending whistle.

Surely this cannot be right.

If you could hear incoming at all (And mostly you probably wouldn't)

A lot of Incoming might well be supersonic anyway. One of the weird things about the V2's on London was that survivors claimed to hear the missile approach after it had actually struck (As the incoming sound caught up with the missile)

Surely the shell would be accelerating towards you under mavity on a ballistic trajectory so if you could hear it at all, Doppler shift would mean that you would hear an ascending whistle, not a descending one!

Comments, and anecdotal experiences welcome!

 

[G-MAN2004]

You've just had me whistling ascending and descending sounds. I still have no answer.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Films != documentaries

End thread.

 

[Puzzled]

Would the angle of fire make a difference? The sound of the guns could possibly beat the shell depending on the trajectory.

 

[Orionaut]

Would the angle of fire make a difference? The sound of the guns could possible beat the shell depending on the trajectory.

High angle howitzer/mortar, yep you might well hear the gunfire before the shell.

But the shell would still be accelerating towards you during the latter part of its trajectory.

so It wouldn't change the incoming sound assuming you could hear it anyway.

 

[arctine]

The important thing to remember is it was always making a noise. If it's loud enough, you would hear the noise made when it was much higher. You seem to think you need to be able to hear it in real time or not at all.