Just to give an idea of how loud this is: have you ever watched a video of a launch and heard a crackle in the rumble? It sounds like the sound is overdriving t

Just to give an idea of how loud this is: have you ever watched a video of a launch and heard a crackle in the rumble? It sounds like the sound is overdriving the microphone and clipping, but it’s not. It’s overdriving the air. Sound is variation in air pressure, with the peaks of the wave representing the maximum pressure and the troughs representing the minimum. But there’s a hard floor on how low the minimum can go. Once you hit zero pressure, that’s it. The waveform clips. That’s the crackle in a rocket launch.