Technically, in the daytime, the light is being reflected, not emitted, but no matter. At any given point in the flight, both sound and light are being emitted by the jetliner.
But without further explanation, most people won’t really grasp what those two speeds have to do with the illusion. By itself, that’s a correct answer to the question. Thanks! - VC, Billings, MTĪnswer: I remember the first time I noticed that effect, and when I asked my uncle (a scientist) he said the same thing: the speed of light is faster than the speed of sound. A friend told me to ask the question here, so maybe you can help? I’m in 6th grade, so please don’t get too complicated. But that didn’t really help me understand why the sound was behind the airplane.
When I asked my teacher about it, he said something about the speed of light being faster than the speed of sound. The sky was clear, so nothing was hiding behind clouds, and that was the only airplane I could see.
When I looked up I saw this airplane going over, but the sound was coming from way behind it in empty sky. Question: I was outside yesterday and heard a loud sound up in the sky, kind of like a long roar.