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Generate a sonic boom from a stationary device

Physics Asked by George Marshall on January 17, 2021

Is it possible to create a sonic boom using a specially designed audio device for this purpose?

One Answer

Yes it can absolutely be done. The trick is that you have to move the air, instead of moving the body. A sonic boom requires an object to have a supersonic speed with respect to the airstream. If you can't bring the object to the airstream, you can bring the airstream to the object!

Supersonic wind tunnels would be the natural example of this. High pressure air is released into a stationary device in a way which causes the air moving over the aircraft model in question to have a relative speed higher than the speed of sound.

And those tunnels are loud! They can reach 160dB!

Of particular interest would be the de Laval nozzle, which is a rather clever convergent/divergent shape that induces supersonic flow if you give it enough pressure and mass-flow.

Answered by Cort Ammon on January 17, 2021

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