alt Hacker News> When charged particles moving faster than light travel in, for example, water, they perturb the energy equilibrium of the atoms that are in their way.
Why? How good an analogy is a sonic boom?
Replies
adaml_623 • today at 9:38 AM
I have that question as well!
It's exactly a sonic boom.
You can release a party balloon and it will create pressure disturbances as it moves to the top of the room, which theoretically you could measure. It's just not very loud.
Similarly, a charged particle passing through anything at any speed creates a disturbance, it's just not very easy to pick up on until it breaks the speed of "sound".