Marilyn Lockhart, age 15 of Shreveport, LA

 

Can a pilot hear his sonic boom?

The pilot who breaks the sound barrier is traveling faster than the speed of sound, which is roughly one mile in five seconds  The boom happens with a clap of thunder at a certain point of his acceleration  The noise, traveling at the speed of sound, takes several seconds to reach your ears, 2f you look for the plane in the direction of the sound, you will not find it  For it has long gone from the spot where it happened 

The big bang also follows after the pilot, but he keeps ahead of it because he is traveling faster than the speed of sound  For this reason, he does not hear it and must read the instruments on his panel to learn when he has broken the sonic barrier.