Speed of sound
Speed at which sound waves travel through a medium.
The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elastic medium. It varies with the medium and temperature, being slowest in gases, faster in liquids, and fastest in solids.
Lore & Background
C. Hardy that miscalculated corrections for dried air.
Reader's Guide
The speed of sound is a key concept in physics and engineering, defining the threshold between subsonic and supersonic motion via the Mach number. Its measurement has a long history of refinement, from early discrepancies to modern precision. The speed varies dramatically with medium: in diamond it is about 35 times faster than in air. Understanding the speed of sound is essential for acoustics, seismology, and fluid dynamics. The historical efforts to measure it accurately—from Mersenne and Derham to Colladon and Sturm—illustrate the gradual improvement of experimental techniques and the correction of theoretical models, such as Newton's error and Laplace's resolution.
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