A sonic boom is produced by an aircraft when it does which of the following? A) flies faster than sound continuously.B) None of these.C) All of these.D) first exceeds the speed of sound and breaks the sound barrier.E) pulls out of a subsonic dive.

Nuts to the wording. Sonic booms are created when the aircraft is exceeding the speed of sound, for however long the speed exceeds the speed of sound.

A is so poorly worded, it is difficult to understand. I would go with B, but your teacher may argue that she meant A to be the answer, and mark you off.

The correct answer to the question is D) first exceeds the speed of sound and breaks the sound barrier.

To understand this, we need to know what a sonic boom is and how it is produced. A sonic boom is a loud sound that is created when an aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound. As an aircraft approaches the speed of sound, it starts to experience a buildup of pressure waves in front of it. Once the aircraft exceeds the speed of sound, these pressure waves merge together and form a shockwave, which is heard as a sonic boom on the ground.

So, in order for a sonic boom to be produced, the aircraft must first exceed the speed of sound and break the sound barrier. This means that option D) is the correct answer. The other options are not correct because flying faster than sound continuously (option A) or pulling out of a subsonic dive (option E) are not sufficient to produce a sonic boom. Likewise, option B) states that none of the given options are correct, which is not true, and option C) implies that all of the mentioned options are necessary, which is also not the case.