Shock Thickness

The issue of shock thickness (which will be presented in a later version) is presented here for completeness. This issue has a very limited practical application for most students; however, to convince the students that indeed the assumption of very thin shock is validated by analytical and experimental studies, the issue should be presented.

The shock thickness can be defined in several ways. The most common definition is by passing a tangent to the velocity at the center and finding out where the theoretical upstream and downstream conditions are meet.