SummaryExperiments are described on the interaction of the shock wave generated by a wedge in a supersonic wind tunnel with the turbulent boundary layer on the side wall. It is shown that the onset of separation appears to be largely affected by the action of streamwise vorticity in the interaction region. A simple approximate theory based on this concept shows reasonable agreement with the experimental results. Comparisons have been made with two-dimensional interactions of normal shocks and boundary layers, but they did not produce any conclusive results.