[DrN (OP)]

can someone explain to me what exactly is a sonic boom? why does breaking the sound barrier result in a loud noise? perhaps I'm being really stupid here, but I've not got the energy to try and work it out for myself!
Thanks in anticipation.

[gsmollin]

Any distubance, in air, water, or any other medium is transmitted through the medium at the speed of sound, in that medium. As an object moves through the medium, the medium is compressed by the passage of the object, and waves flow out in front of the object. You can see this in a boat moving slower than the speed of its bow wave. As the object reaches the speed of sound in the medium, the object catches up with the bow wave, and it becomes highly compressed. This is the shock wave. As the object exceeds the speed of sound, the supersonic shock wave forms on its leading edge, and spreads out to the sides.

[DrN (OP)]

well, I think I'm a little nearer understanding it. so basically the sound of the sonic boom is caused by compressed sound waves?

[chris]

As a faster-than-sound object approaches you, the sound waves it produces esseentially 'catch up' with the sound waves it produced earlier because the object is travelling faster than the speed of sound. As a result the waves all arrive at a given point at the same time, combining to produce a much bigger (louder) wave that you hear as a sonic boom.

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[Razor]

The "Thrust SSC" has the land speed record does'nt it?

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[DrN (OP)]

Thanks Chris, I completely understand now!

[Allison]

As a purely irrelevant side note, I heard the sonic booms when I watched the space shuttle fly over my house on its way to Edwards Air Force Base yesterday morning...

Sorry...it was just so very cool![]

[simeonie]

how load is a sonic boom? Is it always the same 'loudness'?

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[chris]

I experienced a sonic boom whilst on a passenger ferry crossing the English Channel travelling from Portsmouth to St Malo France. No, before anyone panics thinking that the ferry was travelling at 800 miles per hour, we were over-flown by a Concorde (those were the days) and as it passed over there was a sudden loud double bang like a gun going off.

Concorde travels (travelled ?) at Mach 2.04 (after Austrian physicist Mach) meaning just over twice the speed of sound. The space shuttle, as noted by Allison above, travels at Mach 27 (27 times the speed of sound) so it's not surprising that she heard a noise !

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[neilep]

I just did a fart that I'm sure broke the sound barrier !!..it went....frrrapprapaparp...BOOM !!...Phew !!!!

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[Razor]

lol []

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[simeonie]

lol well done Neil

And I have a question. It is sort of on topic coz it is about sound......

Is there a limit to how loud something can go? There must be a limit. Is the breaking of the sound barrier sound the loudest? I don't know how loud that is though.

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[Razor]

The sound barrier must be how loud you eardrums can take vibrations before they POP![]

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[DrN (OP)]

Good question Simon - is the sonic boom always the same volume and tone? we used to hear sonic booms frequently when i was a kid - can Tornadoes (the kind the RAF use, not the kind that lifts cows into the air) break the sound barrier? something certainly did, and I didn't think we were under concordes flight path (or any commerical flight path for that matter)

[simeonie]

They might have been really dodgely made and like blown up or something or maybe Neil was pilating it and farted! You just don't know these things!

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[daveshorts]

The volume and tone of the sonic boom will change depending on how far you are away from the aircraft and how fast and how big the plane is.

 The closer you are to the plane the more that the sonic boom will sound like a sharp crack (and another from the back of the plane), as you get further away the different freqencies move at different speed and the high frequencies die away before the low ones so it ends up as a low rumble if you get far enough away.

The volume will be dependent on how much energy there is in the sonic boom and how far you are from it.