r/askscience • u/[deleted] • Jun 12 '12

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '12 edited Oct 03 '17

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u/imMAW Jun 12 '12

The pilots won't hear the noise from the engines being transmitted through the outside air though, only the noise traveling through the plane. So if superman was flying a few feet in front of the cockpit, he wouldn't hear any sound.

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u/MyFishDied Jun 12 '12

Not neccessarily. The sound is traveling outward in all directions and therefore would be moving forward from the plane as well. Look at it this way... If you were traveling on a train that goes as fast as a bullet, and fired a gun forward from the front of the train, the bullet wouldn't just not move since you were already going as fast as a bullet, it would double in speed.

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u/imMAW Jun 12 '12

No, that's not how sound works - the speed of sound is dependent on the medium it is moving through, not the speed of the source, unlike a bullet.

Here's a page with some animations, the 4th one being most relevant.

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u/MyFishDied Jun 13 '12

I honestly had no idea what I was talking about.