A Sonic Boom is Nature Throwing a Divide By Zero Exception
You know about the Doppler effect. It’s what happens when an ambulance passes you at great speed: the pitch of the siren changes. This is…
You know about the Doppler effect. It’s what happens when an ambulance passes you at great speed: the pitch of the siren changes. This is because the ambulance itself is moving along with the sound waves, resulting in a higher frequency reaching your ear when it approaches you than when it is moving away from you. This can be expressed with the following formula:
f0 is the observed frequency, f is the frequency emitted by the source, vt is the velocity of the source and v is the velocity of sound.
Right.
You also know that when a plane travels at mach speed i.e. the speed of sound, there is a large burst when it “breaks the sound barrier”. Why is that?
Simple: Given the formula, when the speed of the plane equals the speed of sound, v = vt, the divisor becomes zero and BANG! Natures throws a Divide By Zero exception. Personally, I am guessing that god thought he didn’t need to handle this one exception because at the time, none of his creations were able to move at such speeds anyway so there was no way the situation would ever occur..