Throats, Nozzles and Shock Diamonds

All rocket engines feature a “throat”, a narrowing of the exhaust nozzle. In the photographs above this throat is obvious at the top of the images. A de Laval nozzle (also known as a convergent-divergent nozzle) as used in rocket engines. The question of why rocket engines all feature throats might seem like it has an obvious answer: … Continue reading Throats, Nozzles and Shock Diamonds