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THE SPEED OF SOUND IS 761.18 MPH @ SEA LEVEL - MACH 1 - THE SOUND BARRIER FACTS INFORMATION AND PICTURES
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THE SPEED OF SOUND FACTS PICTURES AND INFORMATION

(The atmospheric model for the speed of sound at sea level is 761.18 mph (661.32 knots) - This speed is referred to as MACH 1)
B-2 Stealth Fighter Hitting the Sound Barrier

CLICK HERE FOR A SONIC BOOM WAV SOUND FILE

Sound is a vibration that travels through an elastic medium as a wave.

The speed of sound describes how much distance such a wave travels in a given amount of time. In dry air with a temperature of 21 °C (70 °F) the speed of sound is 344 m/s (1230 km/h, or 770 mph, or 1130 ft/s). Although it is commonly used to refer specifically to air, the speed of sound can be measured in virtually any substance. The speed of sound in liquids and non-porous solids is much higher than that in air.

Dependence on the properties of the medium
The speed of sound is variable and depends mainly on the temperature and the properties of the substance through which the wave is traveling. For example, in low molecular weight gases, such as helium, sound propagates faster compared to heavier gases, such as xenon. In a given ideal gas the sound speed depends only on its temperature. At a constant temperature, the ideal gas pressure has no effect on the speed of sound, because pressure and density (also proportional to pressure) have equal but opposite effects on the speed of sound, and the two contributions cancel out exactly. In non-ideal gases, such as a van der Waals gas, the proportionality is not exact, and there is a slight dependence on the gas pressure, even at a constant temperature. Humidity also has a small, but measurable effect on sound speed (increase of about 0.1%-0.6%), because some oxygen and nitrogen molecules of the air are replaced by the lighter molecules of water.

Implications for atmospheric acoustics
In the Earth's atmosphere, the most important factor affecting the speed of sound is the temperature. Since temperature and thus the speed of sound normally decrease with increasing altitude, sound is refracted upward, away from listeners on the ground, creating an acoustic shadow at some distance from the source. The decrease of the sound speed with height is referred to as a negative sound speed gradient. However, in the stratosphere, the speed of sound increases with height due to heating within the ozone layer, producing a positive sound speed gradient.

Basic concept
The transmission of sound can be explained using a toy model consisting of an array of balls interconnected by springs. For a real material the balls represent molecules and the springs represent the bonds between them. Sound passes through the model by compressing and expanding the springs, transmitting energy to neighboring balls, which transmit energy to their springs, and so on. The speed of sound through the model depends on the stiffness of the springs (stiffer springs transmit energy more quickly). Effects like dispersion and reflection can also be understood using this model.

In a real material, the stiffness of the springs is called the elastic modulus, and the mass corresponds to the density. All other things being equal, sound will travel more slowly in denser materials, and faster in stiffer ones. For instance, sound will travel faster in iron than uranium, and faster in hydrogen than nitrogen, due to the lower density of the first material of each set. At the same time, sound will travel faster in iron than hydrogen, because the internal bonds in a solid like iron are much stronger than the gaseous bonds between hydrogen molecules. In general, solids will have a higher speed of sound than liquids, and liquids will have a higher speed of sound than gases.

Some textbooks mistakenly state that the speed of sound increases with increasing density. This is usually illustrated by presenting data for three materials, such as air, water and steel. With only these three examples it indeed appears that speed is correlated to density, yet including only a few more examples would show this assumption to be incorrect.

Mach number
Main article: Mach number
Mach number, a useful quantity in aerodynamics, is the ratio of an object's speed to the speed of sound in the medium through which it is passing (again, usually air). At altitude, for reasons explained, Mach number is a function of temperature.

Aircraft flight instruments, however, operate using pressure differential to compute Mach number; not temperature. The assumption is that a particular pressure represents a particular altitude and, therefore, a standard temperature. Aircraft flight instruments need to operate this way because the impact pressure sensed by a Pitot tube is dependent on altitude as well as speed.


mach speed - subsonic - transonic - supersonic - hypersonic

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