How to Use pressure wave in a Sentence

pressure wave

noun
  • Anywhere where there’s a medium, there’s a chance for pressure waves, which means there’s a chance for sound.
    Paul M. Sutter, Discover Magazine, 8 Mar. 2023
  • When an aircraft is flying below the speed of sound, the pressure waves move away from the craft in all directions.
    George Petras, USA TODAY, 5 June 2023
  • When the aircraft exceeds the speed of sound – at sea level, about 760 mph – these pressure waves collect in front of the craft and compress to form shock waves.
    George Petras, USA TODAY, 5 June 2023
  • The fast collapse generates pressure waves that leave the fluid as sound waves.
    Chris Lee, Ars Technica, 5 Apr. 2018
  • The people taking the video are (fortunately) far enough away that pressure wave takes a while to reach them.
    Aatish Bhatia, Discover Magazine, 13 July 2018
  • The pressure wave from the Tongan blast was recorded circling the globe multiple times in the days after the eruption.
    Erik Klemetti, Discover Magazine, 20 Jan. 2022
  • After the earthquake’s initial pressure wave, there’s a short lull.
    Bruce Barcott, Outside Online, 25 Aug. 2011
  • The pressure wave from the handle slamming down will force adhesive into the crack.
    Mike Allen, Popular Mechanics, 9 Jan. 2018
  • Even worse, the exhaust from the solid rocker booster caused a pressure wave that bent a nearby strut.
    Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, 8 Jan. 2018
  • This hemisphere is the pressure wave produced by the explosion.
    Rachel Lance, Wired, 6 Aug. 2020
  • The fireball and air pressure wave created by such an enormous explosion wipes the base and its pesky radar off the map.
    Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, 5 Mar. 2018
  • The intensity of the pressure wave is then reflected in the intensity of the color on the heat map.
    Monica Cull, Discover Magazine, 19 May 2022
  • But in the real world, the pressure wave from a nearby explosion can kill you without even knocking you over.
    Matthew Hutson, WSJ, 1 May 2020
  • The rupture raced down the fault at nearly 2 miles per second, sending pressure waves rippling outward through the earth like the wake of a speedboat.
    WIRED, 15 June 2023
  • The flame spreads from the plug out and down, creating a pressure wave moving opposite the rising piston.
    Alexander Stoklosa, Car and Driver, 7 Sep. 2017
  • But the primary product of the snapping claw is a high-amplitude pressure wave that can cause damage to soft tissues such as those of the brain.
    Viviane Callier, Scientific American, 14 July 2022
  • If that’s the case, then perhaps a big bomber like the B-1, or many smaller jets, could instead fly low and fast over wildfires, using the pressure waves from sonic booms to snuff out fires.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 8 Aug. 2018
  • The effects were likely caused by pressure wave events, which radiated the effects of the blast for 600 miles or more in all directions.
    John Wenz, Popular Mechanics, 26 Sep. 2018
  • The high-pressure waves can cause a pipe to burst at a weak point; the low-pressure pockets can suck inward like a vacuum, causing a weak pipe to collapse, Wylie said.
    Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Press, 25 Oct. 2017
  • Cruising semi trucks generate a high pressure wave in the front and to each side of the vehicle, and a vacuum forms behind this wedge of air.
    Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 28 Aug. 2017
  • Rather than force their way through this pressure wave, ramjets suck it in, using the abundant oxygen in it as an oxidizer.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 17 Oct. 2019
  • Researchers think the Tonga eruption created pressure waves, which cause the pressure of a material—in this case, air—to rise and fall.
    Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 6 June 2023
  • All that power translates into quite a bit of noise, which NASA dampens by dousing the launch area in curtains of water to absorb pressure waves.
    Jessica Boddy, Popular Science, 3 Feb. 2020
  • The blast ignites the fuel and creates a pressure wave that’s twice as powerful as that from a conventional artillery shell.
    David Axe, Forbes, 18 Feb. 2023
  • Traveling much farther than the fireball, a colossal pressure wave would hurtle forth faster than the speed of sound, generating winds up to 500 miles per hour.
    Daily Intelligencer, 12 June 2018
  • This pressure is applied by pistons that coordinate to make a pressure wave.
    Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 25 Jan. 2021
  • Sound is simply a vibration that propagates as a pressure wave passing through a medium like air or water.
    Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 12 Aug. 2017
  • Residents under the bombs would routinely recall being thrown through the air by the pressure waves of air mines exploding, and window casements and doors would be blown off their hinges.
    Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 25 Sep. 2018
  • Hyche, who is now a police chief in Alabama after serving at ATF for three decades, said the blast pressure wave from an explosion can be as deadly as shrapnel.
    Kevin Krause, Dallas News, 16 May 2021
  • The transducer receives the signal pulses, creating a pressure wave in the tank that is reflected back at the fluid interface (Figure 6).
    IEEE Spectrum, 10 Dec. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pressure wave.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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