Why There’s a Giant Barcode In The Middle of the Mojave Desert

[@robertk1701]

Honestly a recovery rate of 50% on "dropping a thing from space and catching it with an airplane" really isn't that bad.

[@jasonirwin4631]

Don't forget to add "in the 1960's".

[@edwardjones1098]

Better rate than my throwing something a meter and catching it tbh

[@maruftim]

is that success rate just catching with the plane part or the whole thing including retrieving it from the sea?

[@FitzChivalryFarseer2]

The supposed monkeys would have something to say about that :p

[@bathamsteryt]

- U.S. Officals

[@CaptRR]

Fun fact, Physicists who test xray equipment at hospitals use something similar to test out the resolution of xray equipment. It even uses the same theory, basically you look for which one gets blurry and then that is your useable resolution. Of course the item is made out of metal in this case and has square holes cut into it to mimic the lines, but the theory is pretty much the same.

[@QuantumHistorian]

It's also the same idea as a bog standard eye test at the optometrist

[@tybirous3417]

That is a fun fact! Thank you for that

[@dantetre]

Americans tend to reinvent the wheel all the time...

[@Fuego065]

There are improvements from the USAF 1951 test pattern (Like using a Siemens star) but somehow it just doesn't want to die

[@oksowhat]

you literally use same principles to judge your eye

[@Crowbars2]

Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a giant barcode.

[@ovrsurge4689]

This right here officer, this is the comment I came here looking for.

[@scbtripwire]

"We ain't found shit!" - Spaceballs

[@joshsatterwhite1571]

Ave, true to Censors.

[@amog8202]

We won't go down quietly. The aliens can count on that.

[@testickles]

@Repent-and-believe-in-Jesus1which fallout character said that

[@arthur2014]

The U-2 is nicknamed Dragon Lady, not Blackbird. Blackbird is the SR-71

[@SuperPhexx]

You found the 'engagement error'! Contact the production team to receive your gift!

[@maruftim]

welp, see you in the next HAI mistakes video

[@Markyparky56]

Was going to say, that "Blackbird" looked a bit bumpy and wrong. None were ever shot down AFAIK either.

[@doggonemess1]

@@Markyparky56 Nope. And not for lack of trying - the SR-71 famously just went faster when a missile was inbound. But a third of them were lost to accidents.

[@TymberJ]

My favorite SR-71 thing is how to allow enough room for thermal expansion between "sitting on the ground cold" and "fastest plane ever, supersonic hot", components need room to expand by multiple inches. Its fuel tank literally only sealed up and stopped leaking if the plane was supersonic, they couldn't make one that worked at both ends of temperature range. The challenges of designing around Mach 3 being the *low* end of your range boggle the mind.

[@ScottMuellerWoodworks]

Did you know that there are also barcodes on the sides of all military vessels in Norway, Sweden and Denmark? It's so as they come into port, they can scan da navy in.

[@61rampy65]

Ouch.

[@nicholasvinen]

So when they've finished putting a barcode on one ship, they Denmark the next one to Sweden the deal? There's Norway I'll believe that's true.

[@fredericapanon207]

Boo! /runs from the room holding one's nose.

[@reedr1659]

Some real groaners here.

[@johnladuke6475]

Cut that out right now, before the children start to copy you.

[@Frameton.]

My first thought literally was "probably something to calibrate cameras on satellites"

[@iykury]

same

[@tannermccray8724]

I have a theory. Brian from real engineering is holding sam hostage, forcing him to make videos. If im right blink twice or list of the 2 most common types of bricks

[@harrisonofcolorado8886]

Fly Ash bricks, and Engineering bricks.

[@MinecraftMasterNo1]

Red and grey.

[@unoriginalname4321]

Sh!t and house

[@Bod8998]

Ooh hahhahaha

[@savageraccoon787]

Burnt clay and fire clay bricks

[@markymark7247]

While everybody's complaining about mislabeling the U2 spy plane, I'd like to take a moment and ask who made the map at 1:28 because the USSR is missing Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic states (which were part of the USSR at this time) and why it's missing the southern half of the Russian far east from Transbaikal to Vladivostok. Seriously, you remember to add the Central Asian SSRs but forget Russia's most important eastern city? Additionally they forgot to add Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan; somebody send this map to Emperor Tigerstar!

[@oksowhat]

proablly American thinking ussr and Russia are same

[@KaitouKaiju]

The video did not claim that the map was of the USSR

[@varana]

@@oksowhat That's not it - sure, they used a modern map (it has South Sudan on it), but tried to make it look more USSR-ish by colouring in the Central Asian republics. So they clearly did _not_ think that, although they failed quite remarkably.

[@markymark7247]

@@oksowhat see, if it was just mixing up the USSR and Russia I'd understand, but Vladivostok is part of Russia so it's more than just confusing the two

[@whard9961]

stop yappin bud

[@joeym5243]

The U-2 was definitely not the Blackbird. That's the SR-71 aka the X-Men plane

[@cockatoo010]

Right. The U-2 is the dragon lady. A very cool name

[@eggsngritstn]

I came to say the same.

[@longiusaescius2537]

@cockatoo010 there's a joke here

[@thecertifieddoctor]

1:05 you were COOKING with that line

[@lucase.2546]

for real

[@ttourmalinee]

ben never misses fr

[@lunainthewoods]

it caught me off guard so bad i almost choked on my food

[@Sel__27-27]

that was legit hilarious

[@yhubtfufvcfyfc]

My most memorable exam was in optics. We got a page with lines at different densities and were supposed to calculate the resolution of our own eye. I put my exam on the floor and measured the distance between my head and the floor with a ruler. It was great! The exam observer gave me quite some weird looks though...

[@notmuch_23]

When I first saw those lines, I thought "calibrating spy satellites." I think I've watches too many educational videos and shows... ...but I think the patterns still exist because _they're still useful!_

[@johnladuke6475]

They might still be useful, but I wonder if there might be better methods for calculating the resolution of your spy photos.

[@LocalGuardsman]

@@johnladuke6475 Pretty sure spy satellite tech has advanced quite enough that you can just tell on the fly. Cameras have come a long way.

[@agsystems8220]

@@johnladuke6475 Calculating is easy, measuring needs something specific. You need to measure to check your calculations are right. Also, define 'better'. These are hard to beat practically in terms of performance, and when they already have the asphalt laid out they are dirt cheap to maintain.

[@Nightriser271828]

Not to mention, destroying them would undoubtedly have a price tag. It costs nothing to just let them sit, and in the meantime, maybe they could find other uses for it.

[@4RILDIGITAL]

Loved how you busted that alien conspiracy wide open. Had me engaged from start to finish. Your humor is on point! Can't wait to catch more of your stuff on Nebula.

[@rayoflight62]

Who is old enough to remember the good old "TV Test Card" or "Monoscope" that were transmitted on good old analogue TV channels, in order to test and align the good old TV set? Thank you Sam for this video...

[@Attaxalotl]

There's a mistake at 2:08, the U-2 was referred to as the "Dragon Lady," the SR-71 was referred to as the Blackbird, and it was never shot down.

[@paladinhill]

Except that the SR's flying out of Kadena Air Base in Okinawa (Japan) were called "Habu" and had snake painted on the tail. Habu is a Japanese snake.

[@andersjjensen]

It came close once, as engine problems meant they couldn't outrun the Russian interceptors that were headed their way over the Baltic sea. However the Swedes had seen the whole situation on radar (much to the surprise of the US, btw) and sent a bunch of Gripen fighters to rendezvous with the SR-71. The MiGs got cold feet when an entire squadron of Gripens showed up and escorted the SR-71 to a Swedish landing strip.

[@johnladuke6475]

I read (most of) a book that was supposed to be about the Cuban Missile Crisis once. I dropped it because getting more than halfway through was still all just technical stuff about the U-2 planes photographing the missiles and very little about the actual crisis. At that point, they were taking photos of ships in transit and unloading in Cuba to get shots of the crates onboard. They would then scour the pictures for anything of _known_ dimensions and calculate the size of the crates. Then they would compare those sizes to known sizes of crates for the Soviet missiles and launch hardware, while also having frequent enough overflights to track where that container went on the island - where it could be used as a baseline to measure still more objects. This whole calibrated-chart thing seems a lot simpler. I bet the guys who had to analyse those photos were real happy to get the upgrade.

[@jonathandellasantina7715]

You happen to know the name of that book? I feel like I'd be interested in it.

[@johnladuke6475]

@@jonathandellasantina7715 Afraid not, I read half of it about 20 years ago. If you're into the U-2 it would indeed have been great, but I was a youth trying to understand the play-by-play of what the crisis _was_ exactly.

[@jonathandellasantina7715]

@@johnladuke6475 Ah, that explains it, then! For some reason I assumed you had /just/ finished half-reading it, haha.

[@David-hm9ic]

Any film photographer recognized these resolution charts immediately. They’ve been around for much longer than the video suggests. They were used for testing the resolution of camera lenses and film in optics testing for decades before the barcode came along.

[@ausburnesdumbaltaccount9676]

how much are you guys willing to bet that the omission of the SR-71 is interaction bait

[@ImSquiggs]

"large, very harmful shed" is my latest HAI line obsession, haha

[@jayrey5390]

The British used cricket pitches to calculate resolution early on - they are easily seen from high altitude and a known length, and could use these to calibrate - (prior to the American satellite intelligence) the "barcodes" make sense as I think a cricket pitch may be difficult to make out from that altitude.

[@PasleyAviationPhotography]

The U-2 "blackbird"? I think you're confusing the U-2 (Dragon Lady) and SR-71 which IS called the Blackbird.

[@mrdrummer2564]

SR-71 was ready 1966, long after flights over the Soviet Union were stopped after the U-2 incident.

[@dh510]

Hey, thats the same chart my optician showed me when doing my eye examination! Maybe I'm secretly a spy satellite?🤔

[@robertk1701]

A possibility. Have you been dropping film canisters? They may resemble containers of monkeys.

[@johnladuke6475]

Genius! Hiding in plain sight and even the _hardware_ doesn't know it's a surveillance camera.

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

Well, the test is to find out whether you are.

[@kirk2767]

How many of us have been asked so many times "are you a robot?" that we're wondering about it?

[@entropic-decay]

fun fact, my grandfather was involved in the Corona satellite program. specifically, analyzing weather patterns to make sure what they were photographing wasn't blocked by clouds.

[@nuzealand]

the jokes keep getting funnier, you/the writers just keep getting better. keep it up sam

[@iam11thsiddharth]

It's so interesting to note that this channel actually finds some randomness and makes it so interesting, actually I become so focused for this 6 minutes

[@aaaaaaaaaa7862]

1:28 oh god this map of the Soviet Union is abysmal I can’t even begin to describe it

[@splunge2222]

You could also do a video on how Sputnik allowed Johns Hopkins scientists to discover the principles necessary to invent GPS.

[@randydewees7338]

Three bar charts for testing optical resolution. I used such like on elephant sea proof poles on remote island locations to measure Rnought - optical turbulence limited optical paths.

[@ourplekitty]

0:14 I'm surprised noone has commented about this quite literally being the aphex twin logo

[@Professor_sckinnctn]

Hito Steyerl produced a great work of art about these resolution markings.

[@baxairsoft1731]

It's not the U2 blackbird. It's the U2 dragon lady and the SR71 blackbird

[@AaronTureRonAbrahamsson157]

Uh… okay.

[@username65585]

See you in this year’s corrections video.

[@toahero5925]

​@@AaronTureRonAbrahamsson157The blackbird came later, and *never* got shot down, as it flew too high and fast for missiles or fighters to intercept.

[@azilbean]

My grandfather was in the airplane division of the army before it split and became the US Air Force. He was part of an airplane crew who was tasked to photograph the ENTIRE earth!! His job was retired before they finished due to satellites. I just find that wild!! He went on to teach about photography, xrays, and electronics in the air force before he actually retired.

[@PhilLesh69]

My high school technical drafting teacher flew navy jets in the 1950s and his job was to map North Korean radar sites by flying in real low at just above the wave tops and then popping up into the radar zone along North Korea's coast to force them to light up their air defense networks. He lost a wingman one time because when the wingman looked to his left his left hand shifted the control stick ever so slightly left, causing his plane to roll left just enough that a wing tip caught a wave, and he went slamming into the ocean at 300+ mph. He told that story to every new class he taught every semester.

[@djalland1]

The line from1:00 was so good I had to pause the video as I was laughing so hard. Bravo!

[@batatanna]

Same lol

[@xedbubble]

he's so real for that😭

[@bmeht]

I listened to this joke 3 times and I just.... I don't get it at all. :(

[@batatanna]

@@bmeht it's because big news channels recently keep making a big thing, in a negative way, of every time a single trans athletes wins to pass the impression this is an actual issue.

[@Baconator_JYSN]

@@bmeht Because the media seems to obsess over trans people in sports, especially conservative/Murdochian sources (Fox News is an example of this)

[@ALocalFolf]

HAI: "U-2 Blackbird" Everyone else: "So you have chosen... death."

[@greggbonti4952]

00:59 is one of the better jokes I've heard in a long time. Great job!

[@mnm1273]

@@British_Rogue It's not his fault it goes over you head.

[@fur_avery]

@@British_Rogue oh my god you left like 5 comments complaining about that one joke and being transphobic please just take your bullshit somewhere else

[@British_Rogue]

@@fur_avery No, I did not. I subscribed to this channel for interesting factoids. I did not subscribe to this channel for social commentary exclusive to one particular State in the USA. Take *your* misogyny elsewhere. Be better.

[@fur_avery]

@@British_Rogue you know that extensions that allow you to search for youtube comments so i can see exactly how many you made? Also it's funny how you sent 2 more replies before deleting them, too bad I got a notification each time, you were not only homophobic but also in every single one you're calling me a misogynist for no reason, why's that? guess someone really likes argumentum ad hominem

[@British_Rogue]

@@fur_avery Auto-filters kicked in, so I had to rephrase my one singular comment. How the Blazes was I "homophobic"?! I'll answer for you: I wasn't. Unlike you, I don't alter the content of my comments by editing them afterwards. You're misogynistic because you're a TRA. Now go outside and touch some grass instead of stalking people online.

[@Nonakame]

Point of clarification. The one at Fort Huachuca in Arizona is in the Sonoran Desert. There is one in the Mojave Desert at Edward’s AFB. Just nitpicking, great video.

[@kennethng8346]

The Corona launches were mixed in with a civilian space program called Discovery. Classic hiding in plain sight. I remember reading about Discovery as a kid, how they often had to switch payloads because one was not ready for launch. Now we know why.

[@johnladuke6475]

You'd think they'd have another generation of obsolete Corona satellites by now, so that we could have Hubble 2.

[@kennethng8346]

@@johnladuke6475 About a dozen years or so ago the NRO gave a couple of unfinished telescopes to NASA with the proviso they not engage in "earth observation" activities. Never did hear where they eventually went.

[@deus_ex_machina_]

Curious Droid has a great video on this spy programme.

[@BetaDude40]

@@johnladuke6475 Really the only difference between Hubble and a spy satellite is how fast you can turn the thing. If it can spin fast enough to track the earth's surface, it's a spy satellite. if it can't, it's Hubble.

[@ceomg]

1:31 The Resetti x Soviet collab we didn’t know we needed 😂

[@Rocketsong]

There are lots of USAF 1951 tri-bar charts all over the country, including painted on the tarmac at Wright-Pat. It's a standard optical test target.

[@rennoc6478]

2:26 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[@richlaue]

FYI: Amature radio operators, listening to Sputnicks beeps, soon realized that they could determine how far away Sputnick was, and those gave us the idea of GPS. Or so the sorry goes.

[@RobVicRJ]

Man, you really excel not only on explaining trivia in a fun manner but also building an interesting storytelling throughout the whole script. 🎉

[@therussians1351]

The U2 was the Dragonlady NOT the Blackbird. The SR-71 Blackbird and its variations were never shot down.

[@edwinhuang9244]

2:04 For those wondering why, it's because the thing he used to represent radar range is actually oversimplified. The U2 was actually detectable by the Soviet radar of that era; Not forever, but long enough that all Soviets could track it somewhat reliably. Problem was that they didn't have the missiles to shoot it down, until that is they completed development of missiles that could fly up to the U2's height and shoot it down.

[@jurajsintaj6644]

Yep. Its written badly in the video by saying "was immediately shot down", as it absolutely flew for quite a long time over the USSR without the soviet union being able to do anything about it.

[@thebestthingbeforeslicedbr8562]

The whole "coverage with some gaps" idea is largely untrue. Back then, the idea of "stealth" aircraft wasn't really feasible, and it took until Skunkwork's nighthawk for radar absorbing and deflecting materials or decreased radar image to be developed. The U-2 was no more or less "stealth" than any other high-altitude aircraft. Its only advantage was that it couldn't be engaged by fighters and most SAMs. The SA-2, which was the one that shot it down, was actually specially designed for high-altitude interceptions. But that's just the long way to say you're right lmao.

[@edwinhuang9244]

@@thebestthingbeforeslicedbr8562 I reworded the detectable by radar part.

[@ThZuao]

I saw those in NVG testing on the Veritasium channel. I'll guess before watching the video that they're for sattelite optics calibration and testing.

[@nikolapetrovic10000]

Could you please add metric units to your videos? It's really a hassle to pause videos multiple times and convert units in a different tab. You have millions of subscribers, I am suprised you haven't implemented this earlier, as it would help a lot of your viewers.

[@austinchen1004]

At 2:08, the photo shows a U-2 Spy plane nicknamed "Dragon Lady," not an SR-71 "Blackbird." 😮

[@s1ddh4r7h.p]

For metric unit enthusiasts (me), 31k ft = 9.4 km 42k ft = 12.8 km 48k ft = 14.6 km 70k ft = 21.3 km 100 mi = 160.9 km

[@gsenoch]

The scientists “working” on Sputnik at 1:15 is doing utter nonsense with his hands. 😂

[@cabbelos]

The satellite described the experience as out of this world.

[@numagik]

1:00 how to make a good trans joke

[@the-digital-idiot]

Can you please explain the joke? I might be dumb, but I don't understand it. Is it just making fun of the New York times?

[@notaco2hu]

@@the-digital-idiotcause people get super mad whenever trans people win at absolutely anything and try to make as big a deal of possible out of it because they’re jealous. It’s unfortunate

[@The_DASHER]

​​@@notaco2huaren't they biologically superior to normal women or have i been misled

[@AfungusoftheLungusAmongus]

​@The_DASHER Sort of. While biological men are (on average) stronger than biological women (on average). However, after transitioning, a trans man will be as strong as if they were a cis man (and same thing for trans women). Before transitioning, I'm honestly not sure how it works out. But what I do know is that there are many other factors that determine your success. In track, for example, height and speed are important, and while gender often groups biological men as taller, it doesn't always work. Biological men can be shorter than biological women. So it makes more sense to have a taller team and a shorter team (but that's just my opinion).

[@SanchoPanza-m8m]

@@The_DASHER When it comes to sports, the autogynophiliacs are inferior to high-performing men and superior to high-performing women. WHEREAS once there was only sex, and WHEREAS the concept of gender was introduced, and WHEREAS the legal distinction between gender and sex has become muddled, and WHEREAS gender is as easily changed as a Halloween costume, THEREFORE if the goal is to win a trophy, LET IT BE RESOLVED that crooked athletes still will do whatever is necessary to gain the edge.

[@jamesdriscoll_tmp1515]

Fun fact: Similar tiny patterns are used to test photolithographic tools to make semiconductor chips

[@christopherg2347]

2:07 One for the mistakes video! The Lockhead U-2 was nicknamed "Dragon Lady". The Lockhead SR-71 "Blackbird" was it's replacement, operated on 85000ft and was never shot down. It could simply fly away for missiles.

[@RealStormTB]

The U-2 and blackbird are completely separate planes. The blackbird was never shot down either. The black program was very successful.

[@argentlight1953]

Thank you for not using a generated voice as narrator. I appreciate it.

[@pizzaivlife]

I am betting they are still useful for aerial photography of some form

[@geckoman1011]

I guessed it was some kind of calibration aid! But beyond that I had no idea. Thanks for sharing.

[@kwowka]

‘Making it the first ever transgender athlete’ As a trans person, this is an apt statement because I cannot name a single trans athlete yet even my local newspaper is talking about kindergarten races that are ‘dissuading girls’ from participating (THEY ARE 4)

[@twotothehalf3725]

+

[@DanieleGiorgino]

You can tell its a trans joke because it makes no sense and comes out of nowhere.

[@BenSammell]

@@DanieleGiorginomaking unexpected jokes is like his whole writing style, you just can’t be normal about trans people

[@DanieleGiorgino]

@@BenSammell Jokes usually make sense.

[@SlaughterDog]

Though with Sputnik, maybe some of the fear mongering might have actually been based in reality

[@nachomahn]

... That time I watched on KZbin instead of nebula and had to listen to a long ad read about nebula reminding me why I love nebula... And knowing you'd get more sweet sweet coin and job-well-done points, I will go watch it there next

[@henrya3530]

Interesting video but you omitted high altitude balloons which fly higher than any aircraft yet remain within the atmosphere. Fun fact: the high resolution film used in American spy balloons was better than anything the Soviets had. Unexposed film from American spy balloons that were shot down was used by the Soviets to photograph the far side of the moon on 7 October 1959 during the Luna 3 mission.

[@lmj06]

U-2 Blackbird will be in the next HAI mistakes video

[@phillycheesesteaks5560]

Slight error at 2:09 as it was the u2 dragon lady (the sr-71 blackbird, though it did fly high, was developed later and was more focused on speed)

[@zsqu]

I don’t know, this whole video feels like a huge conspiracy made by Earth-buying aliens..

[@Boffin55]

2:08 the U2 is known as the "Dragon Lady", not "Blackbird" (which is the SR71)

[@Bryzerse]

2:22 missed opportunity to have Tim Curry announce the location

[@kittykoma]

Horrible reasoning behind constructing the return vehicle to look like it could house a monkey. I would absolutely try to open it for the sole reason being it looks like it could house a * monkey * FROM SPACE *

[@dkaloger5720]

Honestly it could just be explained as “an eye test but for spy satellites”

[@KaitouKaiju]

Even for non spy satellites

[@fredjohnson9426]

I'm so proud I instantly went "oh its an opticians for aliens".

[@SeizureSalad]

2:08 uhh actually, the U-2 is called the Dragon Lady, not the Blackbird. The SR-71 is designated as the Blackbird

[@28add11]

Ooh finally an error that I found while actually watching the video! That plane, the U2, is nicknamed the Dragon Lady, not the Blackbird. The SR-71 is nicknamed the blackbird. Good video tho

[@winglessepyon]

The Corona satellite, which didn't launch successfully until 1960, was started as a CIA and USAF joint program but then it came under the control of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) when that agency was stood up in 1961. This video is referencing part of the Controlled Range Network aka CORN. At 0:45 in the top right corner you can see the program name. Also sputnik, which is just satellite or traveling companion in Russian, was more concerning for USA in terms of an ICBM than photos from space as the USSR detonated a nuke much earlier than the USA anticipated.

[@adamburditt3941]

I work in optics and we calibrate our machines with similar artifacts, so satellite calibration was my first guess lol

[@jimsvideos7201]

1:59 Getting the relevant types rather than just picking at random, nice. 😊

[@DrKirkDemenz]

3:33 Large Harmful Shed is the name of my next Punk Band.

[@samiraperi467]

My first reaction was "looks like a camera test pattern".

[@ObviouslyBenHughes]

Lookie there, it just so happened to take between four to six minutes to explain! Amazing.

[@astrobotanical]

The U-2 has never been called the Blackbird, that was the SR-71. The U-2's codename is "Dragon Lady"

[@SlackActionBumble]

TLDR: it's like one of those vision charts in the eye doctor office but for satellites

[@robmckennie4203]

"they're targets for testing the resolution of satellite and aerial photography" doesn't seem like it would take 4 to 6 minutes, so let's see where he's going with this

[@reddcube]

Looks identical to a lithography test pattern. I guess that make sense, because both are just testing optics.

[@user-sb3wh3dd4v]

Fascinating and well-presented!

[@Gam3Junkie7]

You mean in the Sonoran Desert. The Mojave ends halfway down Arizona.

[@ianwalker1182]

As a photographer of many years, I immediately realised they were lens resolution test charts.

[@curtisdaniel9294]

Two for two here: Giant Nerd/Dork/Geek and I like listening to your explanations ! 🎉😂

[@syzygeist_]

Can't wait to see this video again in the yearly mistakes video!

[@theEVILone0130]

The U2 wasn't immediately shot down it took years before that happened.

[@medivalone]

I don't see how testing and measuring the optical resolution of the film (the smallest line pair that can be resolved) relates to determining the scale in photos taken from the satellite. Yes, the targets are a known size, but you could just as easily drawn a 100m line on the ground and have the same result. The scale also depends on the altitude of the satellite (orbit might not be perfectly circular), the elevation of the target (a runway on a mountain will look bigger than one at sea level), and the angle at which the photo was taken (the satellite may not be passing your target directly overhead, meaning it's looking off to the left or right etc).

[@lordquintus1419]

A measuring stick doesn't give you resolution, just a measurement. This gives you both, additionally you can take those sample tests of different angles and then get results that way. Altitude isn't going to matter very much as spy satellites tend to have very low eccentricity orbits and most targets are within 3ish km of height of each other which doesn't change much compared to angle changes

[@syriacsteve]

😂 my random first guess of "For satellite photography" was correct! I guess I'm a giant dork! 😂

[@Kyedo2022]

yup pretty cool actually, I realized your printer does the same thing when you print a setup page.

[@scrambledmandible]

If I watch two Half As Interesting videos, does that mean I've watched a full Interesting?

[@KaitouKaiju]

No, you've watched 2/4 as interesting

[@ctm92]

Looks like that test pattern is where Ableton got the inspiration for their logo

[@JK-qi7pp]

2:35 what a missed opportunity to say: 'photo bombed by a fighter jet'

[@OrloxPhoenix]

2:25 the WHAT!? You can't name a space program like that 😂

[@Grove332]

Brings a new meaning to bogos binted

[@scbtripwire]

It's actually pronounced (in the voice of Portal's Space Core): "Spaaaaaaaaaaace"

[@mybackhurts7020]

There’s also some weird symbols near Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave looking Like they’re there to signal UFO

[@artbk]

That whole endeavour was just some photography nerd going crazy with infinite budget

[@RonaldTrumpOfficial]

It’s a Minecraft build so that they can make a custom image for their maps.

[@kylejohnson779]

U-2 Blackbird. Nice mashup

[@Sydney-Casket-Base]

i think they taught me about this in history class last year but i wasnt paying attention lol

[@qovro]

Knowing the resolution of a camera is great, but is not the same as knowing how big things in the photo are. I imagine they could derive both from the same pattern, since they know how long the lines are, but it's a different calculation.,