Every morning the yaks would leave the enclosure and start out on trips to the feeding grounds, and sometimes Harry or George would follow them and hunt for game. On one occasion, while Harry was on the opposite hill, George saw the flash of Harry's gun, and almost immediately thereafter heard the report. This was the first time the difference between the flash and the noise attracted his attention.
"Will you tell me why I saw Harry's fire before the sound reached me?"
"Did you say 'sound' or 'noise'?"
George looked at the Professor quizzically. "Is there any difference between sound and noise?"
"Technically, there is a difference, although in common practice one word is used for the other without discriminating. Sound means a succession of vibrations produced in their regular order, like music, whereas noise is a disorganized vibration. For instance, falling water, like our cataract here, is sound, but the report of George's gun was a noise."
"I can see the difference. Would a wagon going rapidly over a pavement be a noise or a sound?"
"It would be a noise if the pavement should be irregular, but if the pavement is regular and the vibrations or beats are uniform, it is then called a sound. But you wanted to know why you saw the shot before you heard it. Simply because sound does not travel as fast as light. Sound moves 1,040 feet in a second, and light over 186,000 miles a second, which is about 850,000 times faster than sound."
"Do soft and light sounds travel at the same speed?"
"Theoretically, yes; but numerous experiments have been made, and many of them go to show that a loud noise really travels faster than a soft noise."