Sonic boom faster than the speed of sound, thus creating a sonic boom. The whip is probably the first human invention to break the sound barrier. A bullwhip tapers down from the handle section to the cracker. The cracker has much less mass than the handle section. When the whip is sharply swung, the energy is transferred down the length of the tapering whip. Goriely and McMillen showed that the physical explanation is complex, involving the way that a loop travels down a tapered filament under tension. Sonic boom A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created whenever
Periodic travelling wave Periodic travelling wave In mathematics a periodic travelling wave (or wavetrain) is a periodic function of one-dimensional space that moves with constant speed. Consequently it is a special type of spatiotemporal oscillation that is a periodic function of both space and time. Periodic travelling waves play a fundamental role in many mathematical equations, including self-oscillatory systems, excitable systems and reaction-diffusion-advection systems. Equations of these types are widely used as mathematical models of biology, chemistry and physics, and many examples in phenomena resembling periodic travelling waves have been found empirically. The mathematical theory of periodic travelling waves is most fully developed