Speed of Sound

Today we looked at how sound needs to travel through a medium. We also looked at the speed of sound and explored lightning and thunder, and learnt how sound travels faster through materials denser than air, such as metal, water, wood, etc. We did a number of different experiments to explore this. We also went outside and observed from 100 meters away Mr Marquand whack some wood together - there was a slight pause before we heard the sound. We compared the speed of sound to light. Sound travels about 330 meters per second where as light would go around the earth about 7 times per second. Finally we looked at how somethings can travel faster than the sound it is creating, such as jets, and create a sonic boom and a cloud like effect. So there was plenty of fascinating learning to get our heads around today!!