Article View: sci.space
Article #8646Faster than sound
From: Hans.Moravec
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1989 19:45
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 1989 19:45
9 lines
791 bytes
791 bytes
As Arthur Clarke has pointed out in several books, the crack of a whip is a sonic boom caused by the tip exceeding the speed of sound. As the momentum in the heavy part of the whip near the handle moves in a wave towards the lighter tip, the velocity increases, until it exceeds that of sound, and *CRACK*. The taper of the whip serves to incrementally match the high impedance of one end with the low impedance at the other.
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<8902131948.AA06208@angband.s1.gov>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ROVER.RI.CMU.EDU!Hans.MoravecShow Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ROVER.RI.CMU.EDU!Hans.Moravec From: Hans.Moravec@ROVER.RI.CMU.EDU Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Faster than sound Message-ID: <8902131948.AA06208@angband.s1.gov> Date: 13 Feb 89 19:45:38 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 9