7. Waves

including UFOs, earthquakes, and music

Two strange but true stories

The following two anecdotes, Flying Saucers and Rescuing Pilots, are actually closely related, as you will see later in this chapter. They both will lead us into the physics of waves.

Flying saucers crash near Roswell, New Mexico

In 1947, devices that the U.S. government called “flying disks” crashed in the desert of New Mexico. The debris was collected by a team from the nearby Roswell Army Air Base, which was one of the most highly classified locations in the United States. The government put out a press release announcing that flying disks had crashed, and the story made headlines in the respected local newspaper, The Roswell Daily Record. Take a moment to look at the headlines for July 8, 1947:

Serious newspaper headlines from the respected Roswell Daily Record, RAAF stands for “Roswell Army Air Force”.

The next day, the U.S. government retracted the press release, and said their original announcement was mistaken. There were no flying disks, they claimed. It was only a weather balloon that had crashed. Anybody who had seen the debris knew it wasn’t a weather balloon. It was far too large, and it appeared to be made from some exotic materials. In fact, the object that crashed was not a weather balloon. The government was lying, in order to protect a highly classified program. And most people could tell that the government was lying.

The story I have just related sounds like a fantasy story from a supermarket tabloid--or maybe like the ravings of an anti-government nut. But I assure you, everything I said is true. The story of the events of Roswell, New Mexico is fascinating, and not widely known, since many of the facts were classified until recently. In this chapter I’ll fill in the details so that the Roswell story makes sense.

Incidentally, if you are unfamiliar with the name Roswell, that means you have not watched the TV program “The X Files” or read any of the other voluminous literature about flying saucers