Mike
Values of the Speed of Sound:
One of the most common questions we receive is fow fast is the speed of sound, and as was pointed out earlier, there is no single value to quote. The speed of sound, also known as Mach 1, changes throughout the atmosphere based on the temperature at any given altitude. Probably the most important value to remember, however, is the speed of sound at sea level. Based on the standard atmospheric model, this value has been defined to be
a.. 1,116.4 ft/s
b.. 340.3 m/s
c.. 761.2 mph
d.. 1,225.1 km/h
e.. 661.5 knots
If you were to reach Mach 1, or "break the sound barrier," at sea level, the above speed is how fast you would have to travel in order to do so.
At what speed does the earth move around the sun?
67,062 miles per hour
Let's calculate that. First of all we know that in general, the time it takes to travel a distance is equal to the length of that distance, divided by the speed at which you travel that distance. If we reverse that, we get that the speed is equal to the distance traveled over the time taken.
We also know that the time it takes for the Earth to go once around the Sun is 1 year. So in order to know the speed we just have to figure out the distance traveled by the Earth when it goes once around the Sun. To do that we will assume that the orbit of the Earth is circular (which is not exactly right, it is more like an ellipse, but for our purpose it will do just fine). So the distance traveled in one year is just the circumference of the circle. (remember that the circumference of a circle is equal to 2*pi*Radius)
The average distance from the Earth to the Sun is 149,597,890 km. Therefore in one year the Earth travels a distance of 2*Pi*(149,597,890)km. This means that the velocity is about:
velocity=2*Pi*(149,597,890)km/1 year
and if we convert that to more meaningful units (knowing there is 365 days in a year, and 24 hours per day) we get:
velocity=107,300 km/h (or if you prefer 67,062 miles per hour)
So the Earth moves at about 100,000 km/h around the Sun (which is 1000 times faster than the speeds we go at on a highway!)
quote>
That is probably the most confusing post I have ever read at this forum, fascinating, weird and confusing and pretty long too.
