I have been in the IT business for over 35 years, starting as a mainframe operator to programmer, systems analyst, manager, director and Vice President of Technology. Because of some health issues I now find myself with lots of free time which I'm using to learn more about the online cyberworld. My online experience goes back to the early 1980's when I had one of those first CompuServe accounts (on a Commodore 64), then experience with BBSs (with a 300 baud modem), to AOL, then Netscape Navigator, IE, Firefox, et al. With my new "free time" I'm trying to explore and understand the Internet of the 21st century - Web 2.0, etc.
An oblique shock is a shock wave that, unlike a normal shock, is inclined with respect to the direction of incoming air. It occurs when a supersonic flow encounters a corner that effectively turns the flow into itself and compresses. This photograph shows an oblique shock at the nose of a Northrop T-38 Talon aircraft, made visible through Schlieren photography.
Photograph credit: NASA & US Air Force (J.T. Heineck, Ed Schairer, Maj. Jonathan Orso, Maj. Jeremy Vanderhal)