The Curious Events Leading to the Theory of Shock Waves

We review the history of the development of the modern theory of shock waves. Several attempts at an early-theory quickly collapsed for lack of foundations in mathematics and thermodynamics. It is not until the works of Rankine and later Hugoniot that a full theory is established. Rankine is the first to show that within the shock a non-adiabatic process must occur. Hugoniot showed that in the absence of viscosity and heat conduction conservation of energy implies conservation of entropy in smooth regions and a jump in entropy across a shock. Even after the theory is fully developed, old notions continue to pervade the literature well into the early part of the 20th Century.