Bullet bow shockwave
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A bullet bow shockwave is a physical and audible wave created in the air when a bullet travels at supersonic speeds; meaning faster than the speed of sound.
The bullet bow shockwave is the result of air being greatly compressed at the front-most tip of the bullet as it slices through the air. As the bullet moves forward a broadening wave of compressed air trails out diagonally from the bullet tip. The sides of the bullet create a conical waveform. This conical waveform may be audible to a witness as a whip-crack sound.
A bullet bow shockwave will be heard by any witness as long as the bullet speed is faster than the speed of sound, whether the bullet was fired from a weapon giving off an openly audible muzzle blast, or a mechanically-suppress-fired muzzle (silenced weapon) blast. If a bullet is fired from a silenced weapon, a witness can mistake the bullet bow audible shockwave whip-crack for the weapon muzzle blast audible wave, which is a separate, slightly preceding, audible event. It might be noted here that if one incures such an event, that the sound you hear from a silenced weapon will not be from the point of origin.
[edit] In History
- This phenomenon may be of primary importance in the grassy knoll theory of the Kennedy Assassination.
[edit] In fiction
- This effect was used in several bullet time scenes in "The Matrix" Trilogy.
