I’ve never really understood how something travelling faster than teh speed of sound causes a sonic boom.
Secondary, like when man first broker the sound barrier, did the scientists *know* a sonic boom would occur, or was it a surprise and they all were like “WTF was that, did we just break something”?
Thirdly, is a sonic boom guaranteed when something breaks the sound barrier, or do they sometimes not happen?
In: 58
I find it easiest to understand from the point of the observer. If something noisy is coming your way, the noise starts out faint, and gradually increases in strength as it closes in on you. It gets loudest when the object is closest to you, and then the noise fades out after it has passed you.
However when something goes faster than the speed of sound it gets closer to you faster than the sound is able to reach you in order to do the gradual build up. Instead right after the object has passed the sound goes from 0-100 in an instant, and then fades out as normal.
That instant fade in is what we call a sonic boom
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