Overview of the Mach Number

A detailed tutorial on how to solve for Mach numbers. Step by step tutorial including several examples of how to solve for Mach numbers for reference.

A Mach number is the speed of an object moving through the air, or any fluid substance, divided by the speed of sound as it is in that substance. It is often used to represent an object such as an aircraft or a missile’s speed, when it is travelling at the speed of sound or multiples of the speed of sound. This can be portrayed mathematically in the equation M = vs / u, where M is the Mach number, vs is the speed of the source (the object relative to the medium), and u is the speed of sound in the medium.