0
Why is it much more difficult to measure the speed of light than to measure the speed of sound?
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
It is harder to measure the speed of light simply because it is so fast. The speed of light is 300,000,000m/s, where as the speed of sound is 340m/s. This means that the speed of light is almost 900,000x faster than that of sound.
It is for this reason that you will see lightening before you hear it, and why you can use the lag time between the flash and boom to roughly estimate the distance of the lightning strike. For example, if lightening strikes 1km away from where you are standing, it would take about 3 seconds for the thunder to reach your ears (since the speed of sound is 340m/s, which is about 1km/s). The amount of time that it would take for the flash of lightening to reach your eyes is almost negligible: to travel 1km, it would only take light 0.000003s.
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
Add your answer:
Earn +20 pts
Is the speed of sound as speed of light?
The speed of light is much greater than the speed of sound.
Is the speed of light or sound faster?
The speed of light is about 880 thousand timesfaster than the speed of sound.
How is the speed of light and speed of sound related?
The speed of light is about 900,000 times as fast as the speed of sound in air.
What does the speed of sound measure?
sound waves
What is farster the speed of light or the speed of sound?
The speed of light is more than 850 thousand times the speed of sound.
Why it harder to measure the the speed of light than it is to measure the speed of sund?
Roughly speaking, light moves about a million times faster than sound in air.
Is the speed of sound as speed of light?
The speed of light is much greater than the speed of sound.
Is the speed of light or sound faster?
The speed of light is about 880 thousand timesfaster than the speed of sound.
How fast is the speed of sound and speed of light added together?
If you try to measure it its still the speed of light : 186,000 miles per second PLUS about 0.2 miles per second.
Who try to measure the speed of light?
Roemer was the first to measure the speed of light.
How is the speed of light and speed of sound related?
The speed of light is about 900,000 times as fast as the speed of sound in air.
Which was the fastest the speed of light or the speed of sound?
speed of light
What does the speed of sound measure?
sound waves
What is farster the speed of light or the speed of sound?
The speed of light is more than 850 thousand times the speed of sound.
Why speed of light is greater than speed of sound?
The speed of light is the speed at which electromagnetic waves propagate through a medium. The speed of sound is the speed at which acoustic waves propagate through a medium. As the speed of sound relies on the medium moreso than the speed of light, sound propagates much slower than light.
What is the history of the saying you can measure the distance of the storm by counting from the flash of lightning to the sound of thunder?
This is not a saying, it's a fact. The speed of light is faster than the speed of sound, so the further away the lightning is the longer the gap is between the light reaching you and the sound reaching you.
Are decibels used to measure light?
Absolutely. Photographic light meters are designed to measure light for photographic exposure (in a film-speed/shutter-speed/aperture combination), but many hand-held photo light meters can measure light in footcandles, which is a common scale. If you look on places like eBay, you can find inexpensive, digital, brand new meters which read out in Lux or Lumens. Some may read in footcandles as well. It's not difficult to convert from one measure to another (there should be internet calculators which would do it easily).
