A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created by an object traveling through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding much like an explosion. The crack of a supersonic bullet passing overhead or the crack of a bullwhip are examples of a sonic boom in miniature.

Causes

When an aircraft passes through the air it creates a series of pressure waves in front of it and behind it, similar to the bow and stern waves created by a boat. These waves travel at the speed of sound, and as the speed of the object increases, the waves are forced together, or compressed, because they cannot get out of the way of each other. 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 1,225 km/h (761 mph) at sea level and 20 °C (68 °F).

In smooth flight, the shock wave starts at the nose of the aircraft and ends at the tail. Because the different radial directions around the aircraft's direction of travel are equivalent (given the "smooth flight" condition), the shock wave forms a Mach cone, similar to a vapour cone, with the aircraft at its tip. The half-angle between direction of flight and the shock wave is given by:

A sonic boom is a shockwave caused by an aircraft or other object travelling faster than sound.

Sonic boom may also refer to:

Sonic the Hedgehog

Music

Sonic Boom (ソニック・ブーム, Sonikku Būmu) is a 1987 vertical scrolling shooter arcade game created by Sega.

Gameplay

The player, piloting an airplane fighter, begins with a single gun (as with most scrolling shooters) and can power up by collecting power ups dropped by certain colored enemies. The power ups can add a ship to the fighter's left and right sides and increase shot power and range. They can also drop bombs, which can wipe out all weak enemies on screen and do massive damage to stronger enemies.

Ports

Sonic Boom was ported to the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. Some ports were considered worse than others due to their gameplay differences.

Reception

Sonic Boom received mixed to negative reviews.

Crash had said that it plays very much like Flying Shark and "doesn't offer anything that hasn't already been seen".

The Games Machine rated the Atari ST version 79%, the Amiga version 78%, the ZX Spectrum version 76%, the Amstrad CPC version 37% and the Commodore 64 version 64%.