Shock wave
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A shock wave is a rapidly moving disturbance across which pressure, density, temperature, and flow velocity change abruptly. It forms when information cannot propagate upstream quickly enough to smooth the compression.
Shock waves occur in supersonic flight, explosions, lightning, volcanic eruptions, impacts, combustion, and astrophysical flows. They are much thinner and more dissipative than ordinary sound waves.
Across a shock, conservation of mass, momentum, and energy governs the relationship between conditions on either side. Entropy increases, so the process is irreversible.
Shock waves can heat, compress, accelerate, damage, or transform matter. They are studied in gas dynamics, medicine, engineering, planetary science, seismology, and high-energy astrophysics.
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- Source / publisher: Wikipedia
- URL type: WWW
- Credits: Wikipedia
- URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shock_wave