and sound obviously has a delay to a person stood a certain distance from where the sound is made, is that the same for light? so if you can see something far away, its not actually where you see it due to the delay of light getting to you? thats better than any ''how many dogs have you got?!'' question.... just lol
2006-08-04 14:50:49 · 15 answers · asked by Chris86 dotdotdot 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
First of all, you couldn't construct a sentence to save your life. Secondly sound travels at 700 feet per second. Light travels at 186,300 miles per second. It short, you'll see it before you hear it no matter how close or how far you are from the event.
2006-08-04 14:58:04 · answer #1 · answered by The Mick "7" 7 · 18⤊ 0⤋
right. i think light travels at 3 x 10^8 m/s and i think that the speed of sound is around 600 or 700 miles per hour. anyway, yes there is a delay for light just as there is for sound. I believe it takes light 8 minutes to get to the earth from the sun.
2006-08-04 14:56:24 · answer #2 · answered by j 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Light travels faster than sound waves. For example thunder which is the crashing or booming sound produced by rapidly expanding air along the path pf the electrical discharge of lightning is perceived after lightning. The refraction ability of the eye enables it to bend light waves so that an image is focused on the retina. Remember the expression as far as the eye could see. One's ability to hear or see from a distance is determined by the acuity of the senses. Dogs can hear sound at higher decibels than humans. Humans can look at stars and celestial bodies which are millions of yrs away.;and their changes in position caused by the bending of light rays entering the earth's atmosphere. If you are close enough of a distance but not the actual lightning striking point, you can actually see the lightning and hear the thunder and they appear to be almost simultaneously.
2006-08-04 15:48:43 · answer #3 · answered by rosieC 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yet, light from a great distance is delayed. Sensitive equipment will notice the delay in long distance and satellite transmissions (it takes a bit over a tenth of a second for light to go halfway around the world). Astronomers who calculate the motions of the moons of Jupiter have to correct for the time delay for us to see the event. This was one of the early ways in which the speed of light was measured.
2006-08-04 15:29:02 · answer #4 · answered by injanier 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, both light and sound have finite speeds. However, light moves SO much faster that, for most of our experiences, light is effectively instantaneous.
The speed of light is 300,000,000 meters per second, while sound moves about 344 meters per second in air at 21°C (~ 70°F). So light is around a million times faster.
That's why, when I timed track meets, we were always instructed to watch for the puff of smoke from the starter's pistol to start the watches. In the 100M dash, the light reaches us in 0.0000003 seconds, while the sound takes about 0.30 seconds.
2006-08-04 14:58:51 · answer #5 · answered by Dave_Stark 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, the stars that you see in the night sky take years for the light to reach Earth. They say that some of the stars are gone--burned out by the time you can see the light from it on Earth.
2006-08-04 14:56:24 · answer #6 · answered by thisisraya 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
True, by the time you see something far away it may not be there anymore. However, for all intents and purposes, light moves so fast that it is such a miniscule delay, that if you can see it with the naked eye, binoculars/spotting scope, etc - consider it instantaneous.
2006-08-04 14:55:27 · answer #7 · answered by UNITool 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is true.
The stars that you see tonight are millions of light-years away, but don't tell that to the religious people, because they believe that the world was created only 10K years ago.
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I just remembered. I use the speed of light to calculate the correct height of a 2-way radio antennae, based on the frequency that I broadcast on.
2006-08-04 14:55:40 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thats some awesome thinking, but it would be hard to prove b/c
1. light travels faster than sound so you would have to be far away
2. the light would have to be bright
3. it would have to be day so that u could see the person/thing holding the light
4. the person/thing would have to be able to move crazy fast
2006-08-04 15:33:49 · answer #9 · answered by dwalk51 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. And, measuring that time delay is how they calculate the speed of light. Ain't science amazin'?
Wait'll you get to high school! Them high school cats know all kinda neat junk like this!
2006-08-04 14:56:00 · answer #10 · answered by gabluesmanxlt 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋