A sonic boom is a continuous event just so long as the aircraft initially producing the sonic boom stays above Mach 1. Pressure and temperature affect the actual speed of Mach 1 which at sea level is at least 750mph.
You should be thinking “What is the difference between a focused boom and a sonic boom?”
Thus if a supersonic aircraft is flying at 50,000 feet its sonic boom reaches a 50 mile width below its flight path. Focused booms, on the other hand, are discrete events at particular points in the flight path.
How does a sonic boom travel in supersonic?
The boom itself travels along the path that the aircraft while travelling supersonic. Now if the aircraft was at high altitude and then suddenly turned downward pointing directly at an individual on the ground while travelling supersonic, the sonic boom would be more continuous and not just be a passing event.
Depending on the aircraft’s altitude, sonic booms reach the ground two to 60 seconds after flyover. However, not all booms are heard at ground level. The speed of sound at any altitude is a function of air temperature. A decrease or increase in temperature results in a corresponding decrease or increase in sound speed.
While researching we ran into the inquiry “How many miles wide is a sonic boom?”.
The width of the boom “carpet” beneath the aircraft is about one mile for each 1000 feet of altitude. For example, an aircraft flying supersonic at 50,000 feet can produce a sonic boom cone about 50 miles wide.
Does a sonic boom follow the plane?
A sonic boom is a continuous high pressure sound wave following the aircraft. If a plane is flying over a long path say 100 mile, an observer is standing at (say) 10th mile will hear this boom as the plane will pass by and the observer standing at 100 mile will hear this boom after some time as the plane will pass by him.
When we were reading we ran into the query “Why do we hear a boom when a plane flies past?”.
This is what my research found. if the plane breaks the sound barrier and flies faster than the speed of sound, it produces a sonic boom when it flies past. The boom is the “wake” of the plane’s sound waves. All of the sound waves that would have normally propagated ahead of the plane are combined together so at first you hear nothing, and then you hear the boom they create .
What happens when a plane flies past at supersonic speeds?
When a plane flies past at supersonic speeds the exact same thing happens, but instead of the large wake wave, you get a sonic boom. For more information on this and related topics, check out the links that follow. What does the term sonic boom mean? A sonic boom occurs when an object moves faster than the speed of sound.