sound barrier?

Question

if the earth is 24 thousand miles round and there is 24 hours in a day then the earth must be spinning at 1.ooo mph nearly twice the sound barrier so why dont we hear this

Answer 1

Because sound is a wave travelling through a medium (for us, most commonly air) the speed of sound, and therefore the sound barrier, is dependant on the medium a supersonic object is travelling. The denser the medium, the higher the speed of sound.

The atmosphere happens to be travelling with the Earth, along with all the sound that is generated within it. It does not matter how fast the medium for the sound waves is travelling, the effective speed within the medium is still nil.

Besides, the Earth is moving through a vacuum, where there is no sound anyway. Therefore no medium for a sonic boom to be heard in, and no speed of sound to break in the first place.

Answer 2

The sound barrier is actually a shock wave that builds up on an object moving through a gas ( air in th case of our Earth). When the speed of sound is reached 340m/s (approx 700 mph) the shock wave has built up to such a pressure that it causes the air to be pushed aside violently with a bang. The earth is indeed moving faster than the speed of sound both in its orbit around the sun and with speed of its rotation (spin). But because the earth is travelling space whcih is almost a vacuum no shock wave can build up.

Answer 3

The "sound barrier" means moving faster than the speed of sound, relative to the medium you are in. In this case, it's air. The air is moving with the earth at almost the same speed. (If it was exactly the same speed, there would be no wind). So to break the sound barrier, the object has to move about 700 MPH faster than the air is moving. Or slower, if you go west.

Answer 4

The object breaking the sound barrier has to be moving through the air, but the Earth is rotating under it. I suppose this doesn't count, so it does not produce a sonic boom.

Answer 5

Go outside and listen.