Sonic boom
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A sonic boom is a sound associated with shock waves created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding similar to an explosion or a thunderclap to the human ear.
New research is being performed at NASA's Glenn Research Center that could help alleviate the sonic boom produced by supersonic aircraft. Testing was completed in 2010 of a Large-Scale Low-Boom supersonic inlet model with micro-array flow control. A NASA aerospace engineer is pictured here in a wind tunnel with the Large-Scale Low-Boom supersonic inlet model.
NASA F-5E modified for DARPA sonic boom tests
An Australian bullwhip
Shock wave
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In physics, a shock wave, or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a medium but is characterized by an abrupt, nearly discontinuous, change in pressure, temperature, and density of the medium.
Schlieren photograph of an attached shock on a sharp-nosed supersonic body
USS Iowa firing at broadside during training exercises in Puerto Rico, 1984. Circular marks are visible where the expanding spherical atmospheric shockwaves from the gun firing meet the water surface.
Shock wave propagating into a stationary medium, ahead of the fireball of an explosion. The shock is made visible by the shadow effect (Trinity explosion).
Schlieren photograph of the detached shock on a bullet in supersonic flight, published by Ernst Mach and Peter Salcher in 1887