the.com/sonic boom
the sound of an object outrunning its own noise.
means a thunderclap caused by a shockwave when an object moves faster than the speed of sound.
from pilots first heard it while breaking mach 1 in the 1940s, and it puzzled acousticians who realized sound had been piling up in front of the object the whole flight, only released all at once as a cone-shaped shockwave.
not one momentthe boom trails the object continuously, not just once
speed dependentvaries with altitude, temperature, and humidity
concorde windowssonic booms once rattled windows across the atlantic coast
whip cracka whip's tip breaks the sound barrier, causing a mini boom
for instance
concorde 1969 — first supersonic passenger jet, boomed transatlantic routes for decades
chuck yeager 1947 — first pilot to break the sound barrier, bell x-1
space shuttle reentry — produced twin booms heard across florida on landing
nasa x-59 — 2024 aircraft designed to turn a boom into a soft thump