To determine the flight regime of the aircraft flying at a speed of 1200 feet per second at an altitude of 14 kilometers, we first need to convert the speed from feet per second to a more relevant unit, such as meters per second.
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Conversion from feet per second to meters per second: \[ 1 \text{ foot} = 0.3048 \text{ meters} \] Therefore: \[ 1200 \text{ feet/second} \times 0.3048 \text{ meters/foot} \approx 365.76 \text{ meters/second} \]
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Now, we need to find the speed of sound at an altitude of 14 kilometers. The speed of sound varies with altitude, but at 14 kilometers, it is approximately 240 meters per second.
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To determine the Mach number (the ratio of the aircraft's speed to the speed of sound), we divide the speed of the aircraft by the speed of sound at that altitude: \[ \text{Mach} = \frac{\text{Speed of the aircraft}}{\text{Speed of sound}} = \frac{365.76 \text{ m/s}}{240 \text{ m/s}} \approx 1.524 \]
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Based on the Mach number:
- Subsonic: Mach < 1
- Transonic: Mach ≈ 1
- Supersonic: Mach > 1 and < 5
- Hypersonic: Mach ≥ 5
Since the Mach number is approximately 1.524, the aircraft is in the supersonic flight regime.
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