* A shock wave is a longitudinal wave carrying high energy.
* It is narrow wave front of width about a micrometer.
* A shock wave is a strong pressure wave produced in an elastic medium such as air, water or a solid.
* It travels at a supersonic speed i.e., for a shock wave Mach number, M> 1.
* A shock wave is produced due to supersonic aircraft, explosion, lightening, etc.
* It is characterized by abrupt and discontinuous (non-linear) change in the properties of the medium. That is, there is an extremely rapid rise (adiabatic) in local density, pressure and temperature of the medium.
* A shock wave is a longitudinal wave. But it is different from conventional sound wave (It changes properties of gas rapidly but over a small region)
* A shock wave travels faster than sound and its speed depends on its amplitude.
* The amplitude decreases rapidly with distance following inverse square law.
* A shock wave cannot be directly heard. Over a long distance, shock waves will be converted into ordinary sound waves and then they will be heard.
* Shock waves are not formed when the speed of the fluid is less than that of sound. When a shock wave passes through matter, the total energy is conserved but the energy that can be extracted to do work decreases i.e., entropy increases.
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