2006-10-04 11:52:04 · 9 answers · asked by MegN 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The above answers are right. The light travels to your eyes faster than the sound travels to your ears. And the smell of the smoke travelling to your nose? Well that would be even slower, wouldn't it?
It's the same thing as seeing a flash of lightning and then hearing the thunder a few seconds later. The lightning and thunder occur at the same place at the same time. The light waves from the lightning (and the light waves that allow you to see smoke from the gun) travel at 186,000 miles (3x10^8 km) per second, and reach your eye in less than 1/1000 second. But the sound waves from the thunder (or the sound of the gun) travel through air at roughly 1000 feet per second, so they take about 5 seconds to travel a mile (or maybe half a second to travel a city block), and if the lightning (or the gun) is not close to you, there will be a noticeable delay before you hear the sound.
If, on the other hand, the lightning strikes (or the gun fires) right next to you, you will experience the sound and light simultaneously (or it will seem simultaneous), because the light and the sound don't have to travel any measurable distance and they reach you at basically the same time the event is happening.
2006-10-04 12:06:06 · answer #1 · answered by actuator 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
because light travels WAY faster than sound. The noise from the gun has barely left the gun when the light from the smoke has reached your eyes. The farther away from the gun you are, the more apparent it is.
2006-10-04 11:54:29 · answer #2 · answered by Michael W 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
actuator is correct. I never notice the smoke from the starter's gun. I'm looking at the race, not the gun.
2006-10-04 12:53:57 · answer #3 · answered by STEVEN F 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
ligh moves faster than sound, so the grey light bounces off the smoke particles and to your eye(light travels fast enough that it could go around the earth 88 times before you could blink. sound only moves at 742 mph.) the light moves fater than the sound
2006-10-04 11:56:39 · answer #4 · answered by just tht kid over there 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Speed of light is faster than speed of sound
2006-10-04 11:53:53 · answer #5 · answered by shoemanshoe 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Seriously?
2006-10-04 11:57:24 · answer #6 · answered by entropy 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Light (your vision) travels faster than sound.
2006-10-04 11:52:53 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
So you guys are saying that smoke is light?
2006-10-04 11:58:36 · answer #8 · answered by X Purge 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
speed of light is faster than the speed of sound.
2006-10-04 11:58:34 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋