This has always bugged me.
01 December 2005, 01:44 PM
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This has always bugged me.
Question: If the speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second and the speed of sound is 340.29 meters per second and the nearest star (other than our own sun) is 4.3 light years away, how long before the noise from these stars catch up with us? 
What he said.......
01 December 2005, 01:50 PM
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Originally Posted by Milamber
Question: If the speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second and the speed of sound is 340.29 meters per second and the nearest star (other than our own sun) is 4.3 light years away, how long before the noise from these stars catch up with us?
HTH
01 December 2005, 01:51 PM
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Originally Posted by Milamber
Question: If the speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second and the speed of sound is 340.29 meters per second and the nearest star (other than our own sun) is 4.3 light years away, how long before the noise from these stars catch up with us?
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01 December 2005, 01:54 PM
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wont do it. particles can interact across the universe apparently suggesting there is something connecting them, but sound wont travel.
i know if the sun went out cos someone forgot to put 50p in the meter it would take 8minutes for us to know.
i know if the sun went out cos someone forgot to put 50p in the meter it would take 8minutes for us to know.
01 December 2005, 01:55 PM
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Originally Posted by Milamber
But what about "sound" travelling through a vacuum?
01 December 2005, 01:56 PM
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Just got this "The light that we see on Earth does not come from the yellow "flames" of the
sun. Light comes from the productions of millions, zillions of photons in
the core of the sun. This is a byproduct of the fusion going on at the core
of the sun. These photons travel through space at ALL wavelengths of the
electromagnetic spectrum, which includes visible light, which we refer to as
white. The whole EM spectrum includes such things as radio waves,
microwaves, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma rays.
Weirdly enough, light does not require a substance to travel through, thus
can zoom through the vacuum of space.
Sound on the other hand requires a medium, solid, liquid, or gas. The sound
waves are compression waves. In other words, they cause the molecules in
the substance to bump into one another and this "bump" progresses
through the substance. The molecules simply get closer together than
farther apart. This is what your ear picks up."
from this geeky science place
sun. Light comes from the productions of millions, zillions of photons in
the core of the sun. This is a byproduct of the fusion going on at the core
of the sun. These photons travel through space at ALL wavelengths of the
electromagnetic spectrum, which includes visible light, which we refer to as
white. The whole EM spectrum includes such things as radio waves,
microwaves, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma rays.
Weirdly enough, light does not require a substance to travel through, thus
can zoom through the vacuum of space.
Sound on the other hand requires a medium, solid, liquid, or gas. The sound
waves are compression waves. In other words, they cause the molecules in
the substance to bump into one another and this "bump" progresses
through the substance. The molecules simply get closer together than
farther apart. This is what your ear picks up."
from this geeky science place
01 December 2005, 01:58 PM
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Originally Posted by Reality
Show us your calcs 
speed of sound is 340.29 meters per second
299,972,458 / 340.29 = 880,991.09
880,991.09 * 4.3 = 3,788,261.687 light years
Something like that anyway
01 December 2005, 02:00 PM
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Originally Posted by Dracoro
speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second
speed of sound is 340.29 meters per second
299,972,458 / 340.29 = 880,991.09
880,991.09 * 4.3 = 3,788,261.687 light years
Something like that anyway
speed of sound is 340.29 meters per second
299,972,458 / 340.29 = 880,991.09
880,991.09 * 4.3 = 3,788,261.687 light years
Something like that anyway
01 December 2005, 02:06 PM
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Look you lot.
A light Year is a unit of distance, not time. It's the distance light travels in, you guessed it, a year.
So, using 186,000 miles/second (old fashioned, me), we have:
186,000 x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 (leap years don't count).
That's 5,865,696,000,000 miles.
Oh, and a Parsec is a unit of volume - one cubic light year - not time either. I know nobody mentioned it but...
SB
A light Year is a unit of distance, not time. It's the distance light travels in, you guessed it, a year.
So, using 186,000 miles/second (old fashioned, me), we have:
186,000 x 60 x 60 x 24 x 365 (leap years don't count).
That's 5,865,696,000,000 miles.
Oh, and a Parsec is a unit of volume - one cubic light year - not time either. I know nobody mentioned it but...
SB
01 December 2005, 02:37 PM
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So how do radio waves travel to space ships then and how long does it take NASA to talk to the shuttle? Also is NASA talking to the shuttle quicker than the shuttle talking to NASA?? due to the power difference of the radio transmitters they both use????
01 December 2005, 02:38 PM
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Oh, and a Parsec is a unit of volume - one cubic light year - not time either. I know nobody mentioned it but...
01 December 2005, 02:40 PM
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Originally Posted by bigsinky
are you sure? i alway thought it was a measure of distance, about 3.26 light years.
never realised it was real.
01 December 2005, 02:44 PM
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Originally Posted by Wurzel
So how do radio waves travel to space ships then and how long does it take NASA to talk to the shuttle? Also is NASA talking to the shuttle quicker than the shuttle talking to NASA?? due to the power difference of the radio transmitters they both use????
01 December 2005, 02:47 PM
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Originally Posted by Wurzel
So how do radio waves travel to space ships then and how long does it take NASA to talk to the shuttle? Also is NASA talking to the shuttle quicker than the shuttle talking to NASA?? due to the power difference of the radio transmitters they both use????
it just appears that nasa can talk quicker cos their voices are higher pitched
richie
01 December 2005, 02:49 PM
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Originally Posted by drumsterphil
Never - noise doesn't travel through a vacuum of space.
01 December 2005, 02:52 PM
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Originally Posted by Wurzel
If a tree fell over in the forest and there was nobody around to hear it would it still make a noise?????????
01 December 2005, 02:54 PM
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Originally Posted by richieh
if there was nobody there how do you know it fell over?
perhaps you had seen it the day before standing tall and erect then the next day it was lying on its side, indicating that it had fallen over at some stage!