- #141
Baluncore
Science Advisor
2023 Award
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You are ignoring the rise in temperature of the air due to the shock front pressure rise. The speed of sound in hot air is greater than in ambient air. So the average speed of the molecules in the shock front is supersonic, >M1.Squizzie said:If you are referring to individual molecules as particles, then my understanding is that, according to statistical mechanics, the molecules are individually moving in random directions at a mean speed of around Mach 1, and that the pressure in the blast wave is being transmitted by the molecules imparting momentum to their neighbours through their collisions over the distance of the few nanometers of their mean free path.
Indeed, all shock fronts that arise from an explosion are supersonic.
See: Kinney and Graham; Equation 4-34 .