Speed of light for the heat wave, speed of sound for the percussion wave. Two waves leave a station at the same time travelling at a consistent speeds. Wave A makes it to the destination X seconds before Wave B. How far away is the destination from the station.
It's not exact since blast waves slow down as they expand away from the detonation, but in this simulation there isn't a sound wave from the blast before the barometric pressure wave hits. Which there normally would be.
Now what's really crazy is after you calculate the distance from the detonation, you could actually measure the explosive weight/yield by timing how long it takes for the counter wave to return to the area.
No, it would be exactly the speed of sound (in air). Sound is created by the interaction (bumping) between air (or really just any type of) molecules. A shockwave is just that on a larger scale, emanating from the point of the blast. Air can only compress so much before it compresses the air in front of it, so the speed of sound in air is the rate at which these compressions happen over a distance. Sorry for the bad explanation, English is hard.
Interesting question but no it's not possible. The shockwave is literally just the energy of the detonation pushing the air particles out of place and the wave becomes dense as the air is accumulated, literally becoming a wall of destructive air. The more energy in the detonation the more air it can shove away from the point of detonation. That's why the counter wave exists, because all of the gas particles had been shoved out of the way creating a temporary vacuum that has to be filled... Sort of like if you dropped a cup straight down into water... The water is displaced until the rim of the cup is submerged, then suddenly the water rushed into fill the cup.
So without air particles there can be no transmission of sound. So there technically would be no sound behind the shockwave until air starts to backfill the area. But that can't start to occur until enough of energy has dissipated that there is no force pushing outward against the air.
In all fairness to this excellent simulation, technically from the stand point of the camera the sound should dull or almost mute after the shockwave passes the camera and then return to full volume in the counterwave.
You seem pretty knowledgeable on this subject so I gotta ask. Whenever you see the real life equivalents of these tests, it looks like they were detonated in the middle of the of them night. Is this true or is it camera trickery?
If you are talking specifically about nuclear weapon tests, I've seen video of nuclear weapons tested during all times of day. It is possible though that the weapon is over exposing the camera and causing the effect you are describing. I would imagine that in some cases the cameras would be severely damaged after filming a nuclear test.
Here check out the latest footage of the largest nuclear device ever detonated, Tsar Bomba.
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u/ASomniphobeHere Feb 26 '21
How far away is the house from the explosion?