can someone explain the sound barrier...what exaclty is it and how it can break?

Answer 1

The sound barrier is not an actual barrier like a wall, its the speed of sound in the surrounding medium (like air).

Imagine a jet travelling faster than the speed of sound in the air and approaching a cloud. Sound waves move ahead of the jet to let the cloud "know" its coming, but if the jet is travelling faster than the speed of sound it gets to the cloud before the sound does. This causes a shock wave in the cloud and that creates a "sonic boom" to us on the surface.

Answer 2

Well, it's not really a barrier, but was given the name because of the inability to get an aircraft going faster then the speed of sound, or Mach 1 (approx 600-700knots / 700-800mph depending on the altitude and other atmospheric conditions). This is the speed at which a sound wave travels.

Breaking it merely means exceeding the speed of sound. As far as aircraft are concerned there are a few aerodynamic effects on the aircraft once it the sound barrier is exceeded. Crude aircraft control surfaces and engines lacking the ability draw in enough air were the intial reason for the speed of sound not being broken and it soon became known as a barrier. One aerodynamic effect on an aircraft breaking the sound barrier is a coning effect of air from the noise back. Once this occurs it is harder to get enough air into aircraft engines so aircraft manufactures devised a way to shrink the air intakes via hydrualics, compressing the incoming air; hence, keeping enough air for the fuel ot burn properly.

Answer 3

The "sound barrier" is a conversational phrase that was coined in the aviation field during the Second World War, to refer to the fact that the speed of sound presented seemingly insurmountable problems for the high-speed airplanes of the 1940s.

For example, propeller driven airplanes are limited by the speed of the tips of the propeller blades, which must move faster than the airplane itself. As the tips approached the speed of sound, or 1100 feet per second, the propeller began to vibrate violently, threatening to shake the whole airplane apart.

So in, say 1945, it appeared that the speed of sound presented a barrier that could not be passed with the existing technology.

In 1949, aeronautical engineers succeeded in overcoming the problem of "mach buffet" in the bullet-shaped X-1 rocket plane. The biggest problem that remained with the X-1 was resolved by fitting the X-2 with swept wings, which allowed it to exceed the speed of sound without problems.

Similarly, the expression "breaking the sound barrier" just means "going faster than the speed of sound, which was routine by the mid-1950s.

Answer 4

Chuck Yeager and friends tried to 'Break the Sound Barrier' in the X=1 Rocket Plane. The trouble doing so was because due to the compression of air molecules in front of the plane, the air would no longer flow smoothly over the plane's surface. This caused such a severe buffet as to shake the plane apart and not allow the plane to accelerate further. A breakthrough in the airfoil design finally solved the problem, restoring more laminar flow.

The sound you hear . . . the boom . . . is caused by air molecules being split apart by the aircraft, then quickly snapping back after it passes, similar to why a bolt of lightning causes thunder.

Breaking the sound barrier is simply a coined phrase to indicate we went faster than the speed of sound.

Answer 5

It was a technological barrier, cause nobody in the 40s knows how to create a air-plane that can flight faster than the Mach number. To 'break' this barrier, many changes were necessary like, new design of wings, rocket motors or turbines with afterburner, and new building material to support the pressure in the air-plane nose.

Answer 6

The sound barrier is the speed that sound travels at. Sound cannot go faster than the sound barrier, which is 344 m/s or 769.5 mph.

You can break the sound barrier if you go faster than 344 m/s or 769.5 mph, for example in a plane. When you break the sound barrier in a plane, you are physically moving faster than the sound waves that the plane's engines are making.

If you are standing on the ground and a plane that is breaking the sound barrier goes by, you don't hear the plane as it goes by for a spilt second because the sound waves are lagging the plane.

Answer 7

Sound is a compression wave that propagates through the air at a fixed speed (the exact speed depends on pressure, humidity, temperature...).
It is around 344 m/s (almost 770 mph or 1240 km/h).

If a sound source is moving through the air, the distance between each wave is shorter in the direction of movement (the preceding wave was moving away at 344 m/s but the source was following it at some speed, so that the next wave is closer that it should).

When the source goes exactly at the speed of sound, then the preceding wave is still at the source when the next wave is emitted. And so on, with the waves all piled up in one spot (at the sound source).

Sound carries energy. Each wave carries a small amount, but if they get all piled up at the same spot, you will eventually get a lot of energy all piled up at that spot.

It was thought that if a plane went at the speed of sound, the energy piling up along the sound sources (nose, wing tips...) would be enough to shatter the plane (vibrations). Thus, the speed of sound was seen as a barrier.

However, if the plance accelerates fast enough, it can get beyond the speed of sound before the piled up energy has enough time to cause damage. The plane has 'broken' the sound barrier before the barrier gets a chance to break the plane.

Answer 8

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Because you have received some incorrect information you should really ask this question by going to
Cars & Transportation>Aircraft
There are guys that frequent the site who have flown supersonic on many occassions
The incorrect information ?
The sound barrier was broken on 10/14/47
The problem with going supersonic was the loss of pitch control . The solution was a movable horizontal stabilizer -which to this day all suupersonic aircraft use.

Answer 9

the sound barrier is the speed of sound through air which is 344m/s or 1,238 km/h. it can be broken by going supersonic (faster than sound).