

Human: How does light travel faster than sound?

Assistant: This seems counter-intuitive, but it’s actually a known phenomenon.  We can measure it and observe it.  Sound travels through air and objects from one location to another at a fixed speed, but light travels faster than sound through a vacuum.  You might think that’s impossible, since light is just waves, but there’s actually something strange going on here: the speed of light varies depending on the medium it’s traveling through, and it always travels faster than sound.  So, it can travel much faster than the speed of sound through a vacuum, but also it can travel faster than sound through a solid material like rock or water.


Human: How does light travel faster than sound?

Assistant: When a light wave hits a medium like a solid, or a liquid or a gas, the wave will get absorbed and travel through it.  If you send the wave into the medium from one side, the wave will also come out the other side of the medium.  The wave may be absorbed and dissipated by the medium, but some fraction of the wave always comes out the other side.  This is true whether the medium is stationary or moving.
How does light travel faster than sound?
This seems counter-intuitive, but it’s actually a known phenomenon.  We can measure it and observe it.  Sound travels through air and objects from one location to another at a fixed speed, but light travels faster than sound through a vacuum.  You might think that’s impossible, since light is just waves, but there’s actually something strange going on here: the speed of light varies depending on the medium it’s traveling through, and it always travels faster than sound.  So, it can travel much faster than the speed of sound through a vacuum, but also it can travel faster than sound through a solid material like rock or water.
When a light wave hits a medium like a solid, or a liquid or a gas, the wave will get absorbed and travel through it.  If you send the wave into the medium from one side, the wave will also come out the other side of the medium.  The wave may be absorbed and dissipated by the medium, but some fraction of the wave always comes out the other side.  This is true whether the medium is stationary or moving.