Why does whip make cracking sound

They create enormous amounts of sound energy, much like explosion. The act of producing the sound from a whip is called Whipcracking. The end of bull whip is also known as cracker. When the cracker moves faster than speed of sound, it creates a mini-shockwave, a sonic boom as it breaks the sound barrier.

This is the sound which you hear. The whip is probably the first human invention to break the sound barrier. You might like — W hy do bombs make whistling sound when they fall? The wave has a certain amount of energy. This energy depends upon the speed of the wave, and the mass of the whip that it is moving in each instant. As the wave gradually moves down into the narrow region, it's moving less mass. So to conserve energy, the wave has to go faster. This is one claim as to how it can build up enough speed to break the sound barrier.

The other theory has nothing to do with the whip being tapered. The lightweight free end allows an extra factor of two to three in speed. For realistic whips, the tip can reach speeds more than 30 times the initial speed," he said. Although the cracking of a whip may seem like an unusual motion, it appears in other circumstances.

One is the roll-cast in fly-fishing. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital.

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