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Whenever you watch a high flying aircraft overhead it seems that its sound comes from behind the craft why is that?
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
The sound takes time to travel from up in the air down to the ground.
So, if the plane is directly overhead, the sound takes a little time to reach you, so that by the time you hear it, the plane has moved a bit. The sound is loudest when the plane is directly overhead, which is how we tend to judge where the sound is "coming from," so it appears to be coming from behind the plane.
This is called the Doppler Affect.
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
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