What is really happening when an aircraft surpasses the sound speed limit for us to hear and see a small ‘boom’?
In: Physics
When an object surpasses the speed of sound in a given medium, it leaves a “bubble” of empty space that collapses almost immediately. This is because the molecules of the medium are pushed out of the way too quickly to fill in the space left in the wake of the moving object.
With aircraft, it’s pushing the air out of the way so quickly that it’s leaving a vacuum pocket behind it. We hear the air collapsing the pocket and see the shockwave from the air carrying the sound of closing that pocket.
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