Last riddle/question, I promise
By hellsangelus
@hellsangelus (670)
Oman
February 13, 2007 6:24am CST
If you were travelling at the speed of sound and you turned on your radio, would you be able to hear it?
Apparently you are supposed to think scientifically about this answer but i have thought and thought and couldnt come up with an answer.
Anyone have any clues about this?
4 responses
@useradd (46)
• Canada
17 Feb 07
The OP is talking about sound, not radio waves. Radio waves are part of the electromagnetic spectrum which is also comprised of light waves. EM waves travel at the speed of light, and this is not in question.
Sound is made from pressure waves within a medium. The medium that we are most familiar with is the air itself. The air in the cockpit is preasurized, and not moving at the speed of sound relative to the observer (pilot) or the radio for that matter. Thus, someone in the cockpit will hear the sound without issue.
1 person likes this
@useradd (46)
• Canada
17 Feb 07
To put it another way, it's as if the air weren't moving at all. The pilot and the air share the same inertial frame, or moving at the same speed. Take the Earth for instance. We travel through space around the sun at a rate several times faster than the speed of sound, but on the Earth's inertial reference frame, it's as if we're not moving at all. It's because everything on the Earth is moving at the same speed.
2 people like this
@josephperera (2906)
• Sri Lanka
19 Feb 07
If you travel at the speed of sound and a radio is with you, then the radio is also travelling at the speed of sound. So the two of you are together. For an outside observer the sound from the radio will not be heard as it is travelling away from him at the speed of sound. But as far as you are concerned, you will hear the sound.
@Admirela09 (160)
• United States
17 Feb 07
You are traveling at the speed of sound relative to the ground or road while the soundwaves from the radio are traveling at the speed of sound relative to you. You do hear it because you are traveling with it not from it.
1 person likes this
