LOL. Setting aside the fact that an "instant" rise is linear - it's merely a line with an infinite slope - I really don't think you can claim any sort of "cushioning" at all until you figure out just how much air is coming at you and how fast it's going. Basically, you want folks to believe that if you drop a column of air weighing, oh, 2 million pounds or so onto an object traveling the opposite direction at 8 km/s in the opposite direction, it's okay, because the rise in pressure is going to take at least a few milliseconds or so. Gotcha. LOL.
It was never my point that simply opening the end of the tube and letting air rush in was a "great idea"...
Was that really so hard? Really, now.
Mr. Boyle's law certainly states that increasing volume decreases pressure, so I think I've got that one covered.
Still didn't do the math, I see.
However, Bernoulli certainly would NOT support your original posts, which were maintaining a solid flow of air at 1 atmosphere...
They were? You must be thinking of someone else - I don't recall claiming anything specific about the actual pressure of the column, other than that it would be non-zero, and indicating that you could expect an approximate atmospheric pressure of 0.3 atmospheres at 29000 feet. Perhaps before we continue, you'd like to review what I've actually said, instead of responding to what you imagine I've said.
...as the leading edge of the wave would be moving the fastest, with incidentally ever decreasing mass. Why? Because gas molecules bounce around at random.
You can't be serious. Individual water molecules bounce around at random too, but that doesn't obviate the fact that they're all going over the waterfall sooner or later. If you'd like to try calculating the position of each individual molecule, be my guest, but I can save you some trouble by stating that the column of air is headed down the tube. Period.