Re: IS LIGHT FASTER THAN SOUND?

John,    
          
Yes, light travels faster than sound. You can tell from several 
examples. The best would probably be that of lightning and thunder. The next 
time during a storm, if you notice when lightning flashes across the sky and 
when you hear thunder, you will find that it is always the lightning that 
flashes before the thunder. This is because lightning (i.e. light) travels 
faster than thunder (i.e. sound), and reaches you faster, so that you see the 
lightning before you hear the thunder. In fact, light is enormously faster than 
sound. Light travels at 300,000,000 metres per second (i.e. 300 million metres 
per second), while poor old sound travels only at 330 metres per second. Light 
and sound are very different kinds of waves and travel differently. That is why 
they travel at different speeds, and are different in other ways as well - for 
example if there is no atmosphere or any material present in between two points, 
just a vacuum; light waves will still be able to travel between the two points, 
while sound will not be able to do so. In other words, in such an environment -
for example, the surface of the moon; if you yell at any point, a person at 
another point would not be able to hear you. But if you shine a torch light, a 
person at another point would be able to see the light. Light and sound are very 
interesting forms of waves to learn about, as you'll probably find.