View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-causes-sonic-booms-katerina-kaouri Objects that fly faster than the speed of sound (like really fast planes) create a shock wave accompanied...
========== Humans have been fascinated
with speed for ages.The history of human progress
is one of ever-increasing velocity,and one of the most important achievements
in this historical racewas the breaking of the sound barrier.Not long after the first
successful airplane flights,pilots were eager to push
their planes to go faster and faster.But as they did so, increased turbulenceand large forces on the plane
prevented them from accelerating further.Some tried to circumvent
the problem through risky dives,often with tragic results.Finally, in 1947, design improvements,such as a movable horizontal stabilizer,
the all-moving tail,allowed an American military pilot
named Chuck Yeagerto fly the Bell X-1 aircraft at 1127 km/h,becoming the first person
to break the sound barrierand tra...
