> "Speed of sound" is just a good way to indicate scale, it probably doesn't have much other useful meaning.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm getting out of the article... the problem is I still have no idea what that scale is, do you? I'm sure the term 'supersonic' was meant to impress and sound fast, but there's at least an order of magnitude uncertainty.
> "Sound" itself needs careful definition in such atmospheres.
Nothing to say here except I love that sentence.
Re:Supersonic plasma jets discovered
by colechristensen on Thursday March 23, 2017 @05:10PM
(#13944323)
I could hazard a guess, but I doubt the scientists have particularly precise measurements (and if they did they'd be better found in a paper rather than my guessing). Having a number and concentrating on it misses the forest for the trees, it's a big number, but not the most interesting part by far.
Re:Supersonic plasma jets discovered
by greglindahl on Thursday March 23, 2017 @05:30PM
(#13944523)
Supersonic means there are shock waves; subsonic means there are no shocks.
Hot near-vacuum gases often need molecular approaches to make models. "Sound" itself needs careful definition in such atmospheres. They're talking about jets of air pushed around by huge electric fields. "Speed of sound" is just a good way to indicate scale, it probably doesn't have much other useful meaning.