In the shock rest frame the upstream and downstream speed magnitudes are and . Denote the downstream density by , and write for specific volume. The Rankine-Hugoniot conditions for a perfect gas express conservation of mass, momentum and total energy:These follow by balancing the respective fluxes across a stationary infinitesimal control volume around the shock wave. The mass relation also gives , and momentum gives .
Eliminate the kinetic-energy difference in the energy condition using momentum:Substitute the given perfect-gas internal energy and collect the coefficients of :HenceFinally givesFor the advancing piston choose the compressive branch , ; the algebraic squared relation alone does not specify that branch.
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