Yes! In uni I had this idea for a program that would triangulate where lightning struck by having multiple computers across campus listening for thunder, then measuring the difference in arrival times of the thunder. Like GPS in reverse.
Soon I realized I’d need the computers’ clocks to be as in-sync as possible, which in turn requires one-way latency calculations. I spent an hour diagramming with pencil and paper until I convinced myself it was mathematically impossible or I wasn’t clever enough to find the solution.
Looking back, I was more worried than I should’ve been about this (wired latencies are usually far less than 5ms, which for sound is ~1.5m) and less worried than I should’ve been about the fact that thunder isn’t anything close to a point source of sound.
Wired latencies are more limiting than you would expect! Light in glass in 2/3rds of that in a vacuum. At 2*10^8 the longest straight arc on earth would take 100ms to traverse in fibre optic cable.
Latency caused by the speed of light is a tangible and impactful factor in our lives!
It's amazing that something so incomprehensible (3x10^8 m/s) can actually be experienced.
Soon I realized I’d need the computers’ clocks to be as in-sync as possible, which in turn requires one-way latency calculations. I spent an hour diagramming with pencil and paper until I convinced myself it was mathematically impossible or I wasn’t clever enough to find the solution.
Looking back, I was more worried than I should’ve been about this (wired latencies are usually far less than 5ms, which for sound is ~1.5m) and less worried than I should’ve been about the fact that thunder isn’t anything close to a point source of sound.