How can you tell light is faster than sound?

Answer 1

Well, first off we need to know what sound and light is.

Sound is the vibrations caused by molecules at the molecular level or something. In other words, it's vibrations. Don't shake your arm and expect to hear something, though. The vibrations are different than that, but you can hit a desk to hear the vibrations go out into the air.

So, you cannot hear anything in space, as there are nomolecules to hear vibrate.

Light, however, is more complex. It's rays, which are unaffected by vacuum and molecules; unless the molecules reflect them. Your eyes see reflected light, and also reflect some back, or something like that.

Light is also photons I think. They hold everything together, meaning that if anything went faster it'd tear them apart.

How does light move faster though? Well, as far as I know no one knows, but if I had to guess I'd say that it's because light holds together molecules, so if the vibrations (Sound) moved faster than light it'd just not be able to move at all.

Answer 2

The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. The speed of sound is about 1,108 feet per second, which is 0.2098 miles per second! The speed of light is about 886,559 times faster than the speed of sound!!
Light travels at 299,792,458 meters per second.

The speed of sound is 340.29 meters per second at sea level.

299,792,118 is the difference of meters per second.

Answer 3

Well, let's say it's the fourth of july. you go to a park to see fireworks. You see the colors of the fire works, then seconds later, you hear the loud boom. The light (colors) came first, then seconds later, (barely two or three) you heard the sound. This is how you can tell.

Answer 4

Light waves are faster than sound waves because of a "trick" in the way the universe works. Let's look into things a bit to see what's up.

It turns out that light, which is electromagnetic energy, is the "fastest" thing in the universe, at least as regards anything with mass. Photons, which are the "carriers" of electromagnetic energy, have no rest mass, by the way.

Sound is mechanical energy (as opposed to the electromagnetic energy of light), and it relies on materials (things with mass) to conduct its energy from the source outward. The mechanical energy can only move as fast as the medium (the material through which it is moving) will allow the sound to move.

To conduct the sound energy, the atoms and molecules in the medium will have to move a bit to "bump" the next atoms or molecules over. Because physical movement of material (which has mass) that is required for it to transmit sound, sound will never be able to move as fast as light. In fact, sound can't move anywhere nearly as fast as light. It's not even a race.

Answer 5

Light is faster than sound because light is an electromagnetic wave that travels through a vacuum at a speed of about 300,000 kilometers per second, while sound is a mechanical wave that requires a medium, like air, to travel through at a speed of about 343 meters per second. You can observe this difference during a thunderstorm when you see the lightning before you hear the thunder.

Answer 6

Light is much faster than sound, so yes