Friday, September 28, 2007
Speed of Sound
Speed of Sound
The speed of sound is roughly 769 mph or 1128 ft. per second.
One mile equals 5, 280 feet.
Sound travels 5,680 feet in 5 seconds. So, this distance is just over one mile.
This information comes in handy when figuring how far away a bolt of lightning is. By counting the seconds of silence between lightning and thunder and dividing by five you will be able to approximate how far away the bolt was. For example: If you can count to ten after a bolt of lightning strikes before hearing the thunder, that bolt was about 2 miles away.
Interesting things happen as an object approaches the speed of sound, specifically with airplanes. Waves of sound become compressed in relation to the nose. Depending on the content of water vapor in the air, a variety of cone shaped condensation clouds can appear very close to the moment that the speed of sound is exceeded. For more information about this phenomena try searching “Prandtl-Glauert singularity”.
The speed of sound is roughly 769 mph or 1128 ft. per second.
One mile equals 5, 280 feet.
Sound travels 5,680 feet in 5 seconds. So, this distance is just over one mile.
This information comes in handy when figuring how far away a bolt of lightning is. By counting the seconds of silence between lightning and thunder and dividing by five you will be able to approximate how far away the bolt was. For example: If you can count to ten after a bolt of lightning strikes before hearing the thunder, that bolt was about 2 miles away.
Interesting things happen as an object approaches the speed of sound, specifically with airplanes. Waves of sound become compressed in relation to the nose. Depending on the content of water vapor in the air, a variety of cone shaped condensation clouds can appear very close to the moment that the speed of sound is exceeded. For more information about this phenomena try searching “Prandtl-Glauert singularity”.
Posted by Ted Zarras at 7:00 PM
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