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Aviation

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    $\begingroup$ Think of the cone not in isolation but as a combination of the cone itself plus the deadwater it carries along. I don't know if that helps because I found it hard to isolate the real question here. $\endgroup$
    – Peter Kämpf
    Commented Jul 7 at 7:14
  • $\begingroup$ @PeterKämpf I don’t blame you, I wasn’t able to explain this very well. Imagine you have a 2d circle. It is emitting sound waves in all directions. In this case for the sake of explanation, when the sound waves travel off, they go in a straight line and don’t interact at all. Because each of those waves were emitted at a slightly different angle (because it was a circle) at some distance wouldn’t those waves start to separate? I’m asking if that same thing applies to the (oblique) shocks that extend from a body. $\endgroup$
    – Wyatt
    Commented Jul 7 at 14:30
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    $\begingroup$ It's a single, circular wave which is emitted. Amplitude will drop with distance, but other than that it will stay unchanged as it radiates out. Since it is radially symmetric, I do not understand why you think something should separate here. $\endgroup$
    – Peter Kämpf
    Commented Jul 7 at 18:32
  • $\begingroup$ @PeterKämpf Right, but each part of that single wave was emitted at a slightly different angle. Imagine you were standing on a part of the theoretical circle, and you throw a ball straight up. Now move over a tiny bit and do the same thing (still on the circle). Those balls would be on trajectories leading away from each other, right? Sorry if this is still confusing, I can't explain this for the life of me. $\endgroup$
    – Wyatt
    Commented Jul 8 at 0:15
  • $\begingroup$ The imaginary rays of sound start to "separate" instantly as they propagate, not "at some distance". There is not a break or gap in the expanding circular/spherical wave front because there are an infinite number of rays and between every two rays that are separating, there are an infinite number of rays that fill in the gaps. Still, the density of the rays (which are just mathematical models - there aren't real sound rays) decreases as the wave front expands and that decreasing density models how the intensity of the wave front decreases as it expands. $\endgroup$
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Jul 8 at 2:49

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