What Are Shock Cones and How Do They Relate to Mach Numbers?

[motherlovebone]

My teacher gave us a worksheet to prepare for the test tomorrow, and we never discussed anything about problems 10 to 14. I'm not asking for answers . . . just clarifications.

1.) What is a shock cone, anyway?
2.) What does Mach II, Mach III, etc. mean?
3.) Are there certain equations that I have to use when solving problems about shock cones?

I would really like to not post the questions on here, because I want to figure them out myself. Just answer my above questions for me as best as you can, and I'm hoping that will help me figure these out. Thanks!

 

[lightgrav]

If you don't have a textbook ...
When a sound source travels faster than the sound,
the forward motion of the sound can't keep up.
The sideways moving sound that was made "t" ago has traveled
y = v_sound t , while the source has moved forward x = v_source t .
There's a cone of sound wave-front that angles back from the source
to the y-coordinate above.
Can you draw this? Can you fingure what the tangent of the cone angle is?
(The cone angle is measured from the path that the source has taken)

 

[physicsprasanna]

Mach (X) means that the velocity of that particle is X times the speed of sound.

So mach II would be twice the speed of sound.