Shock wave shock wave, creating a process of destructive interference. The sonic boom associated with the passage of a supersonic aircraft is a type of sound wave produced by constructive interference. Unlike solitons (another kind of nonlinear wave), the energy and speed of a shock wave alone dissipates relatively quickly with distance. When a shock wave passes through matter, energy is preserved but entropy increases. This change in the matter's properties manifests itself as a decrease in the energy which can be extracted as work, and as a drag force on supersonic objects; shock waves are strongly irreversible processes. Shock waves can
Periodic travelling wave calculate the form and stability of periodic travelling wave solutions of partial differential equations, and the regions of parameter space in which waves exist and in which they are stable. Examples of phenomena resembling periodic travelling waves that have been found empirically include the following. 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