The loudest sound possible in air at sea level is 194 dB (where the
minimum pressure drops to zero). Above that, you have shock waves
propagating faster than the speed of sound, but those attenuate faster
than 1/R2 because of irreversible heating, then after that short
distance it's reduced to "merely" 194 dB, and falls with distance from
there.
At 194 dB, the overpressure is 1 bar, and according to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overpressure, 10 psi (2/3 bar) is
generally lethal to unprotected humans due to lung damage.
Hypersonic impactors are spectacular, though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WagAKBuc_o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDL_pIPScSI&t=6m0s ;(see also 5:36)
On 2018-02-23 1:22 PM, John Dom wrote:
justin corwin wrote on 230218:
Talk about noise abatement though. What's the SPL of a few tonne projectile at
mach 35 at low altitude?
That’ll give you a meteoric deceleration thunder like the one which occurred above Russia a few years ago.
One could also try to find out what racket does a nosecone make during reentry. Near the Kwajalein atoll f. instance.
Jordin Kare once mentioned that one gas-gun concept would kill most ofthe *bacteria* within 100m of the muzzle, never mind anything bigger...
Name is familiar. Which gas gun concept do you refer to?
John