By 2020 there were many lows, and highs from a scientific point of view. Today: The discovery of the high speed of sound. At 1,234.8 kilometers per hour, the aircraft passes through the sound barrier, but this is only a fraction of the actual speed of sound. Under ideal conditions, the sound should be more than a hundred times faster: 129,600 kilometers per hour.

Well, you will not find such conditions on earth. You need solid hydrogen, which you can only find in places where there is a giant high pressure of 1 million atmospheres. For this you have to go to the interior of a gas giant like Jupiter. Under such conditions, hydrogen becomes a superconductor and acts like copper.

The result is a top speed of 36 km / h or 129,600 km / h. Which To write Scientists in the journal Scientific progress. On Earth, sound can reach half the maximum speed of 64,800 kilometers per hour. To do this, sound must travel through the diamond, the hardest material on earth.

Light and sound

Since Einstein, we know that the highest speed in the universe is the speed of light, at 300,000 kilometers per second, or more than a billion kilometers per hour. But what is the high speed of sound, what is not yet known.

By the way, the sound does not always propagate very quickly through the air. At a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, the above is 1234 kilometers per hour, but at 0 degrees, the sound is only 1194 kilometers per hour. In water, sound travels at a speed of 5,436 kilometers per hour and through wood at 11,880 kilometers per hour.

Also note:

This article first appeared on October 9th.

NPO Radio 1 informs you about the latest developments in daily science

Every day between 5pm and 6.30pm News & Co.
Every working day from 2 am to 4 am. Focus
Whenever you need a podcast Focus on science

Report correction