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Which is faster, speed of sound or the speed of a bullet?

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if chuck yeager broke da sound barrier and sound is faster than a bullet, that means he flew a plane faster than a bullet. i find that hard 2 bleve

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  1. Some bullets are subsonic others are supersonic and the speed of sound varies depending on what it's traveling through!  


  2. I've never heard a "sonic boom" from a bullet.

  3. Well the speed of sound is 1125 feet per second (on average based on air density)

    A .22 calibur rifle fires a bullet at 1200 fps

    A .22 magnum rifle - 1700 fps

    A .300 Win Mag - 3200 fps

    Answer your question?

  4. a bullet is faster  when u shoot a gun at an object/animal you SEE it hit the object before you hear it hit the object.

  5. Depends on the bullet. The bullet of a typical assault rifle travels at two times the speed of sound. But special forces also use subsonic bullets, which cause less noise. The SR-71 flies faster as most rifle bullets - but there is also rare hypervelocity ammunition, which is faster as the SR-71. A tank gun is also firing it's ammo only slightly slower as a SR-71 flies. And all bullets are slower than the X-15 or the Space Shuttle.

    But these special bullets are very rare and most people usually associate the speed of the bullet with two times the speed of sound. So, the best answer to your question is: The speed of a bullet is higher and sound is slower.

    So, Chuck Yeager flew faster as the speed of sound, but slower as a rifle bullet. But he flew still faster as a subsonic bullet. Confused now?  

  6. speed of sound o.O

  7. The speed of sound is the term that means how quickly sound waves travel through a given medium.

    Modern aircraft design allow them to achieve speeds that far exceed the average velocity of a bullet.

    The difference would be rate of acceleration vs top constant speed.

    Actually if fired from a significant distance the bullet will hit you shortly before you hear the distant crack of gun being fired.

  8. some bullets go faster than others... some go faster than sound, others go slower... it is possible to go faster than sound though, the space shuttle, and fighter jets, all go faster than sound

    it would be neat to be about a foot in front of the bullet (going at the same speed) and watch it... it would be like it was standing still...

  9. 770 mph - speed of sound

    1500 mph - speed of a bullet

    186,000 mps - speed of light

  10. For the vast majority of handguns and rifles, the bullet travels faster than the speed of sound.  In fact, many hunting rifles fire bullets at a speed of about Mach 3.  Chuck Yeager did break the sound barrier, but he did not fly a plane faster than a bullet.  You stated as part of the question that "sound is faster than a bullet", but that statement is simply wrong.  

  11. The bullet with credit for being fastest is the Winchester .223 Super Short Magnum; it's reached observed velocities of about 1220 m/sec, 4000 feet/second or 2,700 mph (4400 km/h)

    The gun determines the speed of the bullet, and how much gunpowder goes into it, as well as atmospheric conditions, as much as the properties of the bullet itself, that determine speed.

    the speed of sound is 343 m/s (1235 km/h, or 770 mph, or 1129 ft/s, or approximately 5 seconds per mile).

    so in this case the bullet is faster =)

  12. the speed of light is the fastest thing in the world

  13. Bullets are faster. The reason they make that <crack> sound is partially because they create a tiny sonic boom.

  14. who the f*ck told you sound is faster than a bullet? look down the street about half a block. you see someone slam a car door, and d**n near a second passes before you hear it. if i was 1/2 a block away and shot at you, trust me the last sound you would ever hear is the sound of the gun AFTER the bullet struck you. do some research.

  15. Depends on what kind of bullet and what it's fired from, some guns fire subsonic bullets while others fire bullets that are supersonic.

  16. bullet is faster then sound sound travels slowly.  

  17. Oh yeah jets are fast.  So fast they dissenta graded from the friction in the air.

  18. depends how fast the bullet is going.

  19.   When you get shot you don't hear the gunshot because you are dead before the sound gets to you.

  20. It depends on the bullet!  "Faster than a speeding bullet" could cover a LOT of velocities!  

    Generally the speed of sound (Mach 1) is approximately1100 feet per second (740 MPH).  A .22 caliber Long Rifle bullet travels about 950 FPS, significantly slower than Mach 1.  Other bullets travel in excess of 4400 FPS, significantly faster than Mach 1.

    Therefore your question isn't stated in terms which lend themselves to a specific yes-or-no answer.  Yeager did indeed fly faster than some bullets, but much slower than others.

  21. the speed of sound is about 1,000 fps...

    there are mid-grade pellet guns that shoot that....

    getting a gun powder propelled bullet to reach that speed would be nothing....

    sound doesn't travel fast at all... ever watched a thunderstorm on a wide open plain? you see lightning and then will finally hear the sound 5, 10 even 15 seconds later...

  22. Depends on the power of the gun...

  23. Speed of sound = 340.29 m/s

    Old fashioned/high calibre guns ~ 250-350 m/s

    Most modern guns can exceed 1000 m/s (mach 3)

    Hardly any guns fire below the speed of sound now-a-days.

    The reason you don't hear a sonic boom, is that to create one, you need to build up air pressure infront of the bullet, which the bullet then passes through.

    However, bullets are very aerodynamic, and do not build up pressure in front of them.

  24. Usually it would be the bullet, but I suppose someone would have to do an experiment to see how have away a bullet and noise will take off to see at what point it is where either a bullet or sound overtakes.

  25. Bullet is definitely faster than speed of sound. For normally pistol then it might be slower but for those big guns then it is faster (about 1800m/s).

    Speed of sound in the air is 330m/s

  26. Depends on the bullet

    Bullets with relatively large mass/diameter and packing relatively low grain charges, like a 9mm, are fairly slow (though I think most are still supersonic, a few are slower than sound)

    Bullets that are smaller diameter and/or bigger charge are much faster than sound.  .223 or 7.62 would be examples.

  27. depends on the bullet.  some are faster, some slower.

    depends on the medium the sound is traveling in.

    water is much faster.

    in space sound doesn't go at all.

  28. sound is faster

  29. Speed of sound


  30. speed of sound is slow but the speed of a bullet is faster

  31. Depends on the type of bullet, speed of sound is 1087.467 feet per second bullets are typically measured in feet per second (fps). Most pistol calibers like 45 acp and 9mm are less than 1087. fps there are some that are faster. ALMOST all rifles calibers like 7.62mm, 5.56mm are are much faster at an average speed of 2,700 feet per second....that's mach 2.48
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