A theory came up at a party one night and it is worth checking. I found this explanation on another thread.
Imagine a tiny, bouncing ball on the surface of a pond, with ripples spreading outwards from it. The ripples always travel at the same speed, regardless of what the ball is doing. When it’s still, the ripples spread out evenly in every direction. But if the ball starts moving slowly across the pond, the ripples in front of it will be closer together than the ones behind it.
Now, if the ball moves exactly at the speed of the ripples, then the ripples at the leading edge can’t get away from the ball and dissipate – they just accumulate, so all that energy is concentrated along a single, massive leading ripple.
My question is if the ball was capable of massive acceleration in a very short time like a warp drive and could drag an equal amount of energy into the leading edge of the ripple will it neutralize the sonic boom and make it collapse.
If I’m wrong, it would probable create a massive explosion, but it came up at a party one night and it seemed like a good idea at the time.
In: Physics
You’re describing the breaking of the sound barrier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_barrier
I’m not understanding your Warp example.
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