The nerdiest thing you'll read today

(legit, seriously)

So an engineering professor took the post office’s logo, then calculated how fast the USPS eagle was flying.

The eagle in the image above — surprisingly few people realized that’s what it was — is traveling at around Mach 4.9.

Which begs the question… why does it take so long for it to land in by mailbox?
Hey, maybe it’s hard to keep your grip on the mail when you’re flying that fast.

Nope, this is not an urban legend. Andrew Higgins is a legit guy, a mechanical engineer and professor at McGill University, and the principal investigator for the Interstellar Flight Experimental Research Group.

He did the calculation for a class he taught on compressible flow. You can see his original post on X here. The above image will also take you to it.

Also, a Mach number does not indicate speed directly. If you did want to calculate speed in km/hr (or mph), then you’d need to know temperature.

And that’s it for today.

Nerd signing off.

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I know I mentioned this last week, but here’s a quick reminder that nominations are still open for the Dragon Awards. If you enjoyed the Vision Rising series (link/image below) and want to see it in the lineup, you can submit your nomination by clicking here.

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Thanks for visiting the Speakeasy, and spending part of your day with me!

Fair skies & tailwinds,
L.L. Richman

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