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?
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Imagine a boat moving slowly in completely still water. It doesn’t produce a wake, but it will produce small waves/ripples around the boat. If it drives past a dock, i the dock will get hit by a bunch of ripples as the boat passes. That is like a subsonic airplane.
Now if you move the boat fast, it will be moving faster than the ripples/waves can form in front of the boat. The boat now produces a wake and whenever it drives past the dock, one massive wake hits it. That is like a supersonic aircraft’s sonic boom.
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