Final answer:
A shock wave is produced when a wave source moves faster than the wave it produces. This is most commonly witnessed as a sonic boom in aeronautics when an airplane exceeds the speed of sound.
Step-by-step explanation:
A shock wave is produced when a wave source moves faster than the wave it produces. This is known as breaking the sound barrier in aeronautics and results in the distinctive sonic boom. When the source of waves, such as an airplane, moves through air faster than the speed of sound, it produces sound waves that spread outward spherically but are left behind by the faster-moving source. Consequently, these waves undergo constructive interference along a cone surface, resulting in a shock wave. An interesting example of this principle outside of acoustics is Cerenkov radiation, a similar phenomenon where a particle moves through a medium faster than light travels in that medium, creating a luminescent shockwave.