4 ms·
Currently the 2nd comment on the page of article addresses that. Actually, supersonic simply refers to anything moving faster than the speed of sound in a part
by antoko 13y ago
Currently the 2nd comment on the page of article addresses that.
Actually, supersonic simply refers to anything moving faster than the speed of sound in a particular medium. The Earth's atmosphere has a particular speed of sound but so does the solar atmosphere and wind. Apparently, the speed of sound in the solar wind is roughly 220,000 mph. Supersonic and subsonic are the terms that scientists use to describe such things.
and then links to this...
http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/623/1/511/fulltext/61043.text.html http://iopscience.iop.org/0004-637X/623/1/511/fulltext/61043...
- nathanb 13y agoInteresting, thanks for clarifying. Perhaps I'm biased by my own ignorance, but the speed of sound in the solar wind (or the fact that terms like "speed of sound" still make sense in an ostensible vacuum) seems like the sort of thing a reasonable person might not know. If science writing is to be accessible to the layperson, an explanatory parenthetical (even just clarifying the approximate speed at which the subsonic wind was traveling) would have been helpful. Thanks for the downvote, though.
- antoko 13y agoI absolutely didn't downvote you, I fully agree with your point, and was equally confused by the use those terms in that context.