Science · 6 pages · 12 min
Why a sonic boom arrives all at once
The boom is sound the plane stacked by outrunning its own waves.
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From the opening
A sonic boom arrives all at once because a supersonic object outruns the sound it emits, so the waves cannot spread ahead as a gentle tone. They pile along a cone, and a listener crosses that surface as one sharp pressure jump. The opening covers waves piling up on a cone, why the boom follows the whole track, and the double jump of an N-wave.
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Inside
- Waves piling up on a cone
- Why the boom follows the whole track
- The double jump of an N-wave
- A whip crack is the small case
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- The Mach cone of a supersonic source
- The N-wave signature of an aircraft sonic boom