It is cool! Summed up nicely here:
Shock wave, strong
pressure wave in any elastic medium such as air,
water, or a solid substance, produced by supersonic aircraft, explosions, lightning, or other phenomena that create violent changes in pressure. Shock waves differ from
sound waves in that the
wave front, in which compression takes place, is a region of sudden and violent change in stress,
density, and
temperature. Because of this, shock waves
propagate in a manner different from that of ordinary acoustic waves. In particular, shock waves travel faster than sound, and their speed increases as the amplitude is raised; but the intensity of a shock wave also decreases faster than does that of a sound wave, because some of the
energy of the shock wave is expended to heat the medium in which it travels. The amplitude of a strong shock wave, as created in air by an explosion, decreases almost as the inverse square of the distance until the wave has become so weak that it obeys the laws of acoustic waves. Shock waves alter the mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties of solids and, thus, can be used to study the
equation of state (a relation between pressure, temperature, and volume) of any material.
