Youtube sonic boom? (2023)

What is the loudest sonic boom ever recorded?

The strongest sonic boom ever recorded was 144 pounds per square foot and it did not cause injury to the researchers who were exposed to it. The boom was produced by a F-4 flying just above the speed of sound at an altitude of 100 feet.

When an airplane reaches the speed of sound, it makes a bang sound or an explosive noise that can be seen with the naked eye. This is often called "breaking the sound barrier." The visible part of a sonic boom is actually air that becomes squashed by sound waves.

The effects of sonic boom on man's physical and mental health are presented. Sonic booms have marked effects on behavior and subjective experience as exemplified by startle reactions and attendant feelings of fear. Such intrusions disrupt sleep, rest and relaxation, and also interfere with communications.

Why don't we ever hear sonic booms any more? Noise abatement regulations halted supersonic flight (by civil aircraft) over U.S. land. The Concorde could still take off and land here because it broke the sound barrier over the ocean, but it's no longer in service.

If you're WONDERing about how pilots handle sonic booms, they actually don't hear them. They can see the pressure waves around the plane, but people on board the airplane can't hear the sonic boom. Like the wake of a ship, the boom carpet unrolls behind the airplane.

In the 1950s and '60s, Americans filed some 40,000 claims against the Air Force, whose supersonic jets were making a ruckus over land. Then in 1973, the FAA banned overland supersonic commercial flights because of sonic booms—a prohibition that remains in effect today.

The aircraft pushes a cone of pressurized air molecules out of the way so quickly that they're spread out into a shock wave. It's rare for sonic booms to break windows or cause serious structural damage to buildings, but it's technically possible if the the sonic boom is powerful enough, according to NASA.

Breaking Barriers

The speed of sound is fast, but bullets move faster. In fact, bullets can move fast enough to break the sound barrier. Contrary to what the name might suggest, the sound barrier is not an actual wall or barrier.

Duration of sonic boom is brief; less than a second, 100 milliseconds (0.1 second) for most fighter-sized aircraft and 500 milliseconds for the space shuttle or Concorde jetliner. The intensity and width of a sonic boom path depends on the physical characteristics of the aircraft and how it is operated.

“When they break the sound barrier, a boom can sometimes be heard or felt as shaking on the ground, and our seismometers can record the shaking,” shares Katherine Whidden with UUSS. “Certain atmospheric conditions, such as inversions, can trap the energy and make it more likely to be widely felt on the ground.”

Has a 747 ever broken the sound barrier?

High-speed 747s

The 747-100, for instance, was tested up to Mach 0.99, almost breaking the sound barrier. Other 747s, such as Air Force One, have approached the sound barrier but never crossed it.

Most sonic booms aren't felt on land (most supersonic training flights are out over the ocean). Atmospheric events are difficult to detect with seismographs because they usually transfer very little seismic energy into the ground.

A vapor cone (also known as a Mach diamond, shock collar, or shock egg) is a visible cloud of condensed water that can sometimes form around an object moving at high speed through moist air, for example, an aircraft flying at transonic speeds.

Sonic booms produced by aircraft flying supersonic at altitudes of less than 100 feet, creating between 20 and 144 lb. overpressure, have been experienced by humans without injury. Damage to eardrums can be expected when overpressures reach 720 lb.

A sonic boom occurs when an object moves faster than the speed of sound. As it moves through the air, it creates shock waves that can cause a loud, booming sound. It is mostly emitted by aircraft that travel at supersonic speeds.

Within the United States, it is illegal to break the sound barrier. The Federal Aviation Administration regulations are quite clear: "No person may operate a civil aircraft in the United States at a true flight Mach number greater than 1" except in certain, very limited conditions.

Distance covered by sonic booms

They're heard based on the width of the "boom carpet." The width ends up being about one mile for each 1,000 feet of altitude, so an aircraft flying at 50,000 feet would produce a sonic boom cone about 50 miles wide.

On the topic of supersonic speed, helicopters have a theoretical top speed of 417 kph in conventional flight mode because of the problem of the advancing blade reaching supersonic speed over too great an area and the retreating blade losing lift abruptly.

For an aircraft flying at a supersonic speed of about Mach 1.2 or less at an altitude above 35,000 feet, the shockwaves being produced typically do not reach the ground, so no sonic boom is heard.

How fast is sonic boom mph?

Sound travels at about 344 m/s (761.2 mph). This is a bit faster than a civilian jet plane (a typical jet on its way from Chicago to New York travels at a peak speed of 550 mph). However, we have planes, mostly used by the military, that can equal and exceed the speed of sound.

In essence, that regulation prohibits anyone from operating a civil aircraft at a true flight Mach number greater than 1 over land in the United States and from a certain distance off shore where a boom could reach U.S. shores.

(a) No person may operate a civil aircraft in the United States at a true flight Mach number greater than 1 except in compliance with conditions and limitations in an authorization to exceed Mach 1 issued to the operator in accordance with § 91.818.

Damage due to a sonic boom is possible in light building components which have a large surface and consist of a material with a low tensile strength. Damage is very rare at overpressures up to about 500 N/m* and can only occur at points at which there were earlier stress concentrations.

Theoretical approaches for suppressing the sonic booms that occur when planes fly faster than the speed of sound have been around for three decades. But advances in computational fluid dynamics, plus a recent proof-of-principle flight, have made the prospect of an acceptably quiet sonic boom seem within reach.

For this to be the case, the tip of the towel must travel faster than sound. We have used high-speed photographic methods to show that the tip of the towel does indeed break the sound barrier. An experiment reported by Bern- stein et al.

By the 1950s, many combat aircraft could routinely break the sound barrier in level flight, although they often suffered from control problems when doing so, such as Mach tuck. Modern aircraft can transit the "barrier" without control problems.

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F-16s fly at speeds of 1,500 miles per hour and can rise to an altitude of 50,000 feet, per the fact sheet. “It is a part of an F-16 fighter pilot's training curriculum to occasionally fly speeds that break the sound barrier,” Ottaviano said.

Contrary to what you might imagine, a plane causes a sonic boom not just once, when it breaks the sound barrier, but continuously for the entire time that it's supersonic. The boom sweeps over everything below it—a kind of sonic broom that is about a mile wide for every thousand feet of plane altitude.

Do you hear strange LOUD popping sounds in the night? Don't worry it most likely is just a Frost Quake. Your house will not fall down. A Frost Quake happens when moisture suddenly freezes and then expands.

Is thunder a sonic boom?

Keep in mind these shock waves are produced when the intense heat of lightning superheats air, causing it to expand faster than the speed of sound. Thunder is essentially a sonic 'boom'.

The modified Pegasus rocket was launched from a B-52 mother ship at an altitude of 13,000 m (43,000 ft). The X-43A set a new speed record of Mach 9.64 (10,240 km/h; 6,363 mph) at about 33,500 m (110,000 ft) altitude, and further tested the ability of the vehicle to withstand the heat loads involved.

Mach 10 speed has been achieved by aircraft in the past. On November 16, 2004, NASA launched the X-43A, an air-breathing hypersonic vehicle, and was able to reach real Mach 10 while being pushed into the atmosphere.

Bell X-1 Glamorous Glennis.

And at an airshow they'd fly much lower, so it would be louder! To be fair, it was explained that the wind and weather conditions were unfortunate, as they favoured the propagation of sound, but in any case a sonic boom is way too loud to be done for fun: it's only allowed in case of emergencies.

Super Sonic is a special form that Sonic takes on after collecting the seven Chaos Emeralds. His super form grants him increased speed, the power of flight and turns his blue quills upward and golden yellow.

Sonic booms are also known to cause physical damage to structures. Here the effects are related to the peak over-pressure, some examples of which are given below: 0.5–2 psf: fine cracks in plaster, extension of existing cracks. Glass rarely shattered; cracks either partial or extension of existing.

Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, about 110 decibels, like the sound of an explosion or a thunderclap.

NASA has commissioned engineers to design a new kind of jet that can travel faster than the speed of sound, but without the telltale sonic boom. Instead, the aircraft will produce a soft thump as it breaks the sound barrier, which the researchers are adorably calling a "supersonic heartbeat".

A whisper is about 30 dB, normal conversation is about 60 dB, and a motorcycle engine running is about 95 dB. Noise above 70 dB over a prolonged period of time may start to damage your hearing. Loud noise above 120 dB can cause immediate harm to your ears.

Is 700 mph the speed of sound?

The 700 mile per hour supersonic flight achieved Mach* 1.06, or 106% the local speed of sound for the humidity and temperature it traveled through. The speed of sound in those conditions was ~660 mph, well below the 770 mph speed of sound at dry, 68° F conditions.

At what speed do you break the sound barrier? The speed at which you break the sound barrier depends on many conditions, including weather and altitude. It's approximately 770 mph or 1,239 kmh at sea level.

In jet aircraft, an overspeed results when the axial compressor exceeds its maximal operating rotational speed. This often leads to the mechanical failure of turbine blades, flameout and total destruction of the engine.

Most bullets make small sonic booms when flying through the air, which to our ears sound like a loud, distinct “crack!” For the Pentagon's special forces, that makes it hard to be sneaky about what they're shooting.

For an aircraft flying at a supersonic speed of about Mach 1.2 or less at an altitude above 35,000 feet, the shockwaves being produced typically do not reach the ground, so no sonic boom is heard.

In the 1950s and '60s, Americans filed some 40,000 claims against the Air Force, whose supersonic jets were making a ruckus over land. Then in 1973, the FAA banned overland supersonic commercial flights because of sonic booms—a prohibition that remains in effect today.

This path is known as the “boom carpet." If you're WONDERing about how pilots handle sonic booms, they actually don't hear them. They can see the pressure waves around the plane, but people on board the airplane can't hear the sonic boom. Like the wake of a ship, the boom carpet unrolls behind the airplane.

The result is a sudden pressure change or shock wave which propagates away from the aircraft in a cone at the speed of sound. Objects cannot travel faster than c, the speed of light in vacuum (see the FAQ article on faster-than-light travel).

At 194 dB, the energy in the sound waves starts distorting and they create a complete vacuum between themselves. The sound is no longer moving through the air, but is in fact pushing the air along with it, forming a pressurized wall of moving air.

Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, about 110 decibels, like the sound of an explosion or a thunderclap. Through the unique design of the X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) airplane, NASA aims to reduce the sonic boom to make it much quieter.

Can you hear a sonic boom at 60000 feet?

Yes, a sonic boom produced at 60,000' can be heard on the ground. These measurements are from aircraft with different altitude.

Sounds above 150 dB have the potential of causing life-threatening issues. Sounds between 170-200 dB are so intense that they can cause lethal issues like pulmonary embolisms, pulmonary contusions, or even burst lungs.

a sound greater than 1,100 decibels would unleash enough energy to act like an equivalent quantity of mass. Through Einstein's laws of relativity, this mass would create enough gravity enough to form a black hole. Shortly thereafter, everything in existence would disappear in a crush of sound.

Human screams can be quite loud, possibly exceeding 100 dB (as of March 2019, the world record is 129 dB!) —but you probably want to avoid that because screams that loud can hurt your ears! You should also have found sound levels drop off quickly as you get farther from the source.

Within the United States, it is illegal to break the sound barrier. The Federal Aviation Administration regulations are quite clear: "No person may operate a civil aircraft in the United States at a true flight Mach number greater than 1" except in certain, very limited conditions.

Eventually they merge into a single shock wave, which travels at the speed of sound, a critical speed known as Mach 1, and is approximately 1,235 km/h (767 mph) at sea level and 20 °C (68 °F).

Sonic booms are also known to cause physical damage to structures. Here the effects are related to the peak over-pressure, some examples of which are given below: 0.5–2 psf: fine cracks in plaster, extension of existing cracks. Glass rarely shattered; cracks either partial or extension of existing.