In old westerns, a scout kneels and puts an ear to the steel rail to listen for a far-off train. The trick is real: the train's rumble arrives through the rail before it arrives through the air.
Sound travels through any medium: solid, liquid, or gas. But not at one speed. This lesson puts the three states in order.
Sound travels fastest in solids. In steel, sound travels at about 5000 m/s.
Sound travels slower in liquids. In water, sound travels at about 1500 m/s.
Sound travels slowest in gases. In air, sound travels at about 340 m/s.
So the rail delivers the rumble first. The rumble covers the same ground at about 5000 m/s in the steel and only about 340 m/s in the air.
The order is about the medium, not the sound: the same rumble speeds up or slows down as its medium changes.
A boat motor's sound travels through the lake water to a diver and through the air to Maren on the shore. Both are the same distance from the motor. Who receives the sound first?
Sound travels faster in liquids than in gases.
The water is a liquid and the air is a gas.
The diver receives the sound first.
Put these three in order of the speed of sound through them, fastest first: the open air, a brick wall, pool water.
Sound is fastest in solids, slower in liquids, slowest in gases.
The brick wall is a solid, the pool water is a liquid, and the air is a gas.
Fastest first: the brick wall, then the pool water, then the open air.
In which of these does sound travel fastest?
In which of these does sound travel slowest?
Noll says: 'A knock on an aquarium's glass reaches a fish through the water sooner than it reaches me through an equal distance of air.' Is Noll correct?
Which list puts media in order of the speed of sound through them, fastest first?
A beaver slaps its tail on a pond. The slap's sound travels out through the water and through the air above. Which statement is correct?
Which statement about the speed of sound is correct?