If sound is as fast as the speed of light, what happens? Surprise answer

According to scientists, compared to light, which travels at up to 300,000 km / s, sound waves are extremely slow in the air with a speed of only 0.3 km / s. This is also the reason why we often see lightning before we hear thunder.

So, the question is what would happen if the speed of sound suddenly increased a million times faster, i.e. the speed of light?

With this situation, of course we will see both lightning and hear thunder at the same time. But the lightning at that time also looked very strange. That creates areas of higher and lower density in the wave.

If sound were equal to the speed of light, we would see both lightning and hear thunder at the same time. Photo: Pinterest

For example, the visualization of a rainbow spring is an example. Specifically, when this spring moves, the loops will continuously pinch each other and then unfurl. Sound waves are similar. Accordingly, at slow speeds, the density change is imperceptible. However, at the speed of light it is a different story.

According to George Gollin, professor of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, during a thunderstorm, the air becomes very humid, as the sound waves pass through and compress everything and then spread out, the pressure also decreases. so many. Since pressure corresponds to temperature, the sudden drop in air pressure after thunder causes the moist air to freeze. Therefore, we will see lightning through a dense fog of ice crystals.

The lightning speed will completely change the sound of our world. According to Professor Gollin, for example, the voice will have a pitch so loud that it cannot be heard, which is very unusual.

If sound were to travel faster through the air, it would change the way the waves add together. This makes some frequencies louder, while others quieter. In sound waves, increasing frequency increases pitch, so the human voice becomes very odd.

To see how people would hear in a place where the speed of sound travels so fast, imagine how you would sound after inhaling helium.

Professor William Robertson, a researcher in the department of physics and astronomy at Middle Tennessee State University, said that breathing in helium would make the human voice sound like a cartoon character. The reason is because sound waves will travel 3 times faster if they pass through pure helium. In particular, if the sound has a travel speed greater than a million times, the results will be even more impressive.

The sound accelerates suddenly and changes unexpectedly?

Professor Robertson added that if the speed of sound suddenly increased rapidly, it would wreak havoc on the whole orchestra. In fact, wind instruments work similarly to the human vocal cords. Specifically, when sound travels back and forth inside the cavity of an oboe or trumpet, it creates a standing wave.

If sound suddenly increased to the speed of light, it would destroy the entire orchestra. Photo: Reuters

These standing waves act like heavy ropes attached to the wall at the gym.

When a person shakes them hard enough, these waves will begin to oscillate up and down without seeming to travel along the rope. As the strings are shaken faster and faster, the number of waves or frequencies also increases. Similarly, when the sound waves generated by a person’s larynx increase in speed, they increase in frequency.

According to Professor Robertson, humans will also have to redesign wind instruments 1 million times longer to keep them in tune with the cello and vilon. Because when the speed of sound traveling through the air changes, the speed of sound traveling through the string remains the same.

However, according to these experts, humans cannot survive to undergo these dramatic changes. The reason is that even a soft flute can cause everything around to explode into shrapnel.

According to Professor Gollin, light travels in electromagnetic waves. Not made of matter, but sound waves are mechanical waves, consisting of particles colliding with each other. In particular, a molecule traveling at the speed of light would have “nearly infinite energy”.

The sound wave then explodes through every particle it encounters. This causes electrons to be thrown out, creating a rain of matter and antimatter. This is the type of particle produced in extremely high-speed collisions, which has properties opposite to matter. The effects will then become extremely spectacular.

So, if you fly at the speed of light, what will happen?

If you fly at the speed of light, you can go back to the past. However, to do this, humans need a spacecraft that can travel almost as fast as the speed of light.

According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, the faster we go through space, the slower we go in time.

If you build a spaceship with the speed of light, people can travel to the past. Photo: NBCnews

Assuming you’re in a spacecraft capable of traveling at 99.9% of the speed of light to an exoplanet with the potential to support life 40 light-years from Earth, you find some primitive life forms. and then flew back to Earth to share the discovery.

However, when you finally return to Earth, you will find all your colleagues are now very old. While from awareness, you are only about 2 years away. But for everyone on Earth, you’ve been gone for 80 years. This phenomenon is called the time dilation effect.

In fact, this phenomenon is less likely to happen to you. The reason is that traveling at the speed of light is not possible with current technology, despite research theory.

Accelerating the spacecraft at the speed of light would create a huge centrifugal force. This force will also tear your body apart before you even get close to the speed of light.

However, we still have another way to travel back in time. It’s a deep hole .

According to the famous theoretical physicist Albert Einstein made the prediction that these hypothetical tunnels connect two separate places and at two different times. However, the problem is that the wormhole is extremely small and only a millionth of a billionth of a centimeter in diameter. Therefore, no one can get through. If we can capture a wormhole, we can enlarge it.

However, wormholes also have their own problems. That is, they are short-lived. So traveling to the past creates a paradox.

Actual time is a straight line and it only moves forward. So we can only go to the future and cannot go back to change the past.

Albert Einstein said that the speed of light is always constant, even in all different situations of space and time. According to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, nothing in the universe can travel faster than light. Considering the speed of light as a constant has created the premise to build many important physical theories, such as the model of the early universe after the Big Bang.