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A shock wave is a sudden, intense disturbance that moves rapidly through a material or medium, such as air or water. It matters because shock waves can have powerful effects—from sonic booms created by aircraft to blast waves from explosions—making them important to understand for safety and engineering purposes.
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Schlieren photograph of an attached shock on a sharp-nosed supersonic body. USS Iowa firing at broadside during training exercises in Puerto Rico, 1984. Circular marks are visible where the expanding spherical atmospheric shockwaves from the gun firing meet the water surface.
In mechanics, specifically acoustics, a shock wave, shockwave, or shock is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a medium, but is characterized by an abrupt, nearly discontinuous, change in pressure, temperature, and density of the medium.