Numerical simulations of flows with shock waves typically use finite-difference shock-capturing algorithms. These algorithms give a shock a numerical width in order to generate the entropy increase that must occur across a shock wave. For algorithms in conservation form, steady-state shock waves are insensitive to the numerical dissipation because of the Hugoniot jump conditions. However, localized numerical errors occur when shock waves interact. Examples are the “excess wall heating” in the Noh problem (shock reflected from rigid wall), errors when a shock impacts a material interface or an abrupt change in mesh spacing, and the start-up error from initializing a shock as a discontinuity. This class of anomalies can be explained by the entropy generation that occurs in the transient flow when a shock profile is formed or changed. The entropy error is localized spatially but under mesh refinement does not decrease in magnitude. Similar effects have been observed in shock tube experiments with partly disp...